‘Feels like family’: Project Libertad supports immigrant youth in suburban Philly schools

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A year ago, Yulisa Concepción felt alone.

“Yo no quería hablar a nadie, y siento que no me van a ayudar, no van a hacer nada conmigo”, dijo.

“I didn’t want to talk to anyone and I was feeling like they weren’t going to help me, weren’t going to do anything with me,” she said.

The 18-year-old from Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, was trying to juggle high school with caring for her infant son, Jess. Yulisa, whose last name has been withheld for her privacy, came to the U.S. in 2022. She had no family or support system here.

She was in “crisis,” she said, and had thoughts of ending her life.

“Yo no decía lo que estaba pasando conmigo antes, yo no quería hablar a nadie, y siento que no me van a ayudar, no van a hacer nada conmigo”, dijo.

“I didn’t talk about what was happening with me before, I didn’t want to speak to anyone, and I felt like they weren’t going to help me, they weren’t going to have anything to do with me,” she said.

But that changed one day in 2023 when Project Libertad staff, including founder and executive director Rachel Rutter, visited her high school in Kennett Square.

The organization, which works in schools in Bucks, Chester and Montgomery counties, provided Yulisa with legal support, helped connect her with a therapist and supported her in getting urgent health care when her baby was sick.

“Fue lo mejor que me ha pasado en mi vida”, dijo Yulisa. 

“It was the best thing that has happened to me in my life,” Yulisa said. 

Yulisa is now preparing to enter her junior year of high school. Inspired by her work this summer with Project Libertad, Yulisa now dreams of pursuing a college degree and becoming a teacher.

When she feels lonely, she now has a network of people she can call on. Being a part of Project Libertad “feels like family,” she said.

Yulisa’s story is emblematic of what Project Libertad aims to do: provide hope and tangible support to newly arrived immigrant youth throughout the Greater Philadelphia area so they can build their futures, Rutter said.

How Project Libertad came to be

Rutter was working as an immigration attorney when she realized a lot of her clients’ needs extended beyond legal support.

She founded Project Libertad in 2015 to fill that gap and provide a “holistic approach to meeting all the different needs that immigrant youth have.”

Rutter’s work with Project Libertad was awarded national recognition last week, when she was named a CNN Hero.

While legal support is still a key part of Project Libertad, Rutter and her team also offer holistic support to young immigrants in schools throughout Bucks, Chester and Montgomery counties. In 2023, the organization served 1,100 people — most of them children and young adults.

Onsite programming at Phoenixville Area, Norristown Area, Kennett Consolidated, Central Bucks and Tredyffrin/Easttown school districts includes Know Your Rights trainings and Newcomer Support sessions. The organization also has a bilingual therapy program for students.

Rutter said for kids and young people such as Yulisa, who come to the U.S. on their own, housing and food insecurity are significant challenges. Project Libertad’s case managers connect kids with housing programs, health care and mental health treatment, and more to support them in their day-to-day lives.

“They’re really in a precarious position because they’re still high school students, but they don’t have a stable home life where a parent is providing for them,” she said.

With the Know Your Rights training, Project Libertad provides information to students about immigration court, types of immigration status, what someone should do if they encounter an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, among other topics.

“We’re really kind of reinforcing the idea that they do have rights, regardless of what their immigration status may be, and how they can protect those rights,” Rutter said. “We also talk about things like higher education and how even undocumented students are able to go to college.”

The Newcomer Support program, along with their youth leadership team, provides a “safe community” for immigrant students, and allows older students to support younger kids as mentors.

“They’re with other kids who have gone through a similar experience, and as much as possible, like our staff and volunteers are also members of the immigrant community and speak their language so that they really feel that it’s a safe place,” Rutter said.

Expanding resources to the Philly suburbs

Project Libertad focuses on the Philadelphia suburbs, in part because Rutter said there is a dearth of immigrant-serving resources in the collar counties.

“I think anyone would tell you that there’s still not enough [resources] in the city, but the further you get out into the counties, the fewer resources there are,” she said. “So there’s just even less opportunity for people to access free or low-cost services.”

That scarcity can also leave immigrants in the counties vulnerable to exploitation by attorneys who charge more money for their services or bad actors.

Rutter said she would like to see more funding from local, county and state governments to provide resources for newly arrived immigrant residents.

“We get requests every day that we have to turn away because there are just so many more people, but especially kids who need immigration services, versus how many nonprofit attorneys there are,” Rutter said. “Paying a private attorney can be really cost prohibitive for people. So there’s always just way more need than what we can meet as a nonprofit or the nonprofit community in general.”

‘A safe space in the classroom’

Since its founding in 2015, Project Libertad has steadily expanded and is starting work in the Central Bucks and Tredyffrin/Easttown school districts for the first time this year. Schools reach out to them when they have a high population of newcomer students.

“I really like that schools are taking responsibility for providing these services to their English learners,” she said.

Teachers, Rutter said, are some of the “biggest proponents” of the work they do.

“We just get really good feedback from teachers as well, that our programs create a safe space in the classroom, and that they see that carry over into other academic areas outside of our program as well,” Rutter said.

Rutter recalled one student who had PTSD symptoms, and was throwing up and crying during the school day. Her teacher told Rutter that after the student won her asylum case, with the support of Project Libertad, those symptoms started to subside.

The mental and emotional support immigrant students find in their programs has been all the more important since immigration became a major political talking point in the 2016 election cycle. Negative rhetoric about immigrants continues to appear in political ads and beyond, Rutter said. Students report being bullied in school.

Project Libertad shifted their programming from after school to during the school day because students were fearful of walking home late due to potential ICE raids.

“They’re definitely aware of what’s going on politically, and that’s impacted us as an organization, too,” she said, noting that the organization has received harassing emails and social media messages because of their work with immigrant youth.

“Things like that that I’ve seen kind of ramp up because of this all being in the news with the election cycle,” she said.

Rutter said they plan to replicate their model of having case managers and social workers collaborating with lawyers in the three counties they currently work in, and keep scaling and expanding from there.

Yulisa’s message to immigrant youth: There is support.

“Hay veces pensamos que no tenemos las personas que nos van a ayudar, pero no es la verdad”, dijo. “Muchas personas te quieren ver feliz y que puedes hacer y vivir la vida que tu mereces”.

“There are times that we think people aren’t going to help us, but it’s not true,” she said. “A lot of people want to see you happy and that you’re able to make and live the life you deserve.”