Underserved Populations - Latina Women

Article

When Susan Reyna learned in May that she had a won a grant to help fund her work with victims of domestic violence in a community of mostly migrant Latina women, all she could think of was how far she and others had come.

"I thought of the abuse I watched my mom go through; what I survived," said Reyna, a third-generation migrant worker who witnessed domestic violence and experienced sexual abuse as a child. "We've come so far since those first days; we have brought domestic violence as a health issue to a national level!"

Reyna was awarded $120,000 by the Boston-based Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leadership Program award, to enhance MUJER, Inc. (The program's name in Spanish means "woman.") MUJER, in Homestead, Fla., is now addressing what has been considered the greatest obstacle that Latina women face when trying to escape domestic violence: fragmentation of services.

MUJER offers comprehensive care to victims by partnering with a network of over 15 other community agencies that provide serves ranging from legal aid to healthcare.
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