A coalition of eleven Haitian churches in Nashville and Antioch has launched a free counseling program for families who are living with the uncertainty of the Temporary Protected Status case currently before the Supreme Court. The program pairs licensed Christian counselors with families at no cost and holds sessions inside church buildings that families already know. The first appointments started earlier this week.
The network is called Espwa, the Haitian Creole word for hope. It grew out of a conversation that began at a pastors' breakfast in February and moved quickly after the Supreme Court scheduled oral arguments in the TPS case for the week of April 27. Roughly 350,000 Haitians nationwide are affected by the termination announcement the administration made in November, and an estimated 12,000 of them live in the Nashville metro area. For families who have been in the United States for more than a decade, the possibility of losing status has created a particular kind of stress that is hard to talk about outside of trusted community.
Pastor Jean Baptiste of Eglise Baptiste Maranatha in Antioch said the idea came after he spent the early weeks of the year fielding late night phone calls from members of his congregation who could not sleep. He said people were showing up to Sunday service visibly exhausted and asking whether they should start selling furniture or pulling their kids out of school just in case. Pastor Baptiste said the church could pray with them and encourage them, but that what many of them actually needed was a trained counselor who could help them work through the anxiety without shame.
The network operates out of five church locations across Davidson County and Rutherford County, with plans to add two more sites by the end of the month. Sessions are held in Haitian Creole, French or English depending on family preference. The counselors are all licensed through the state of Tennessee and have volunteered their time for an initial six month period. Several of them came out of the Christian counseling program at Lipscomb University and have experience working with immigrant families through other church based programs.
Funding for the program comes from a mix of church budgets, individual donations and a small grant from a Nashville faith based foundation. Pastor Baptiste said the network is working on a request for a larger operating grant that would allow it to hire a part time coordinator and pay for childcare during sessions. For now, the participating churches are absorbing the costs of space, utilities and refreshments.
The Haitian community in Nashville has grown substantially over the past fifteen years, driven by a combination of TPS, family reunification and secondary migration from south Florida and the northeast. Many families in the community work in construction, healthcare, hospitality and warehouse logistics, and their labor has been a visible part of the region's economic growth. Employers have begun to ask the pastors what they should be telling their workers about the pending court case. Pastor Baptiste said the pastors are telling them to stay calm, keep records and trust that the community is preparing for multiple outcomes.
The counselors involved in the program said they are already seeing patterns they expected. Parents are asking how to talk to their American born children about what might happen. Older teenagers are carrying adult level anxiety because they are often the ones translating legal paperwork and news stories for their parents. Grandparents who came to help raise grandchildren are afraid to go to doctor's appointments for chronic conditions because they do not want to draw attention to themselves.
From a theological standpoint, Pastor Baptiste said the program is built on two ideas. The first is that God cares about the whole person, which means the mental and emotional life is not separate from the spiritual life. The second is that the church has a responsibility to meet real needs in its community, not just offer comfort from the pulpit. He pointed to the early church in the book of Acts as a model for how believers can share resources during a time of crisis and said the current moment calls for that kind of practical solidarity.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments the week of April 27, with a decision likely in June or July. Whatever the outcome, Espwa plans to continue operating through the end of the year. Pastor Baptiste said the church's work does not end when the court rules. Families will still need care on the other side of the decision, and the community intends to be there to provide it.