U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar announced two grants totaling more than $3.5 million to TAMIU for the SANE program and the CAMP program Friday.
The Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program is set to receive $1,473,960 from the Health Resources & Services Administration, and the College Assistance Migrant Program will receive $2,184,872 from the U.S. Department of Education.
Cuellar said there was only one SANE-trained nurse in 2018 within 160 miles of the next, but there are now over 100. With almost $1.5 million, the funds are expected to train 54 more registered nurses during a three-year project, with 18 to be certified as SANE for pediatric populations.
“What TAMIU has done is they’ve changed the way we prosecute the bad people who commit sexual assaults, working with the DA’s office, judges and law enforcement,” Cuellar said. “It also provides nurses who offer comfort, compassion and dignity to the victims who come forward. By training these nurses, it provides better justice and better support for sexual assault victims.”
Dr. Marivic Torregosa, dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, said it is very important training for their nurses.
“With the funding for this, it can be used (for financial support and travel allowances) for nurses to be trained,” Torregosa said. “We recruit nurses to be SANE trained not just locally but from surrounding counties or The Valley. The aim for this is to really provide justice for victims.”
Torregosa said TAMIU may have written the grant and received the funding, but the program would not have been possible without the partnerships of many entities, including law enforcement agencies, nurses and Casa de Misericordia.
The competitive five-year CAMP grant, up to nearly $2.2 million, will go toward support for migrant students, including new resources to help them succeed academically and professionally, such as comprehensive advising services including tutoring, mentoring and academic advising.
“There are still migrant families, and young kids go up there with their parents depending on the season,” Cuellar said. “When they get back, if they get behind, you’ve got to have a support system here. This money is to specifically help those students from migrant families, providing support, mentoring and all that. Just because they go to work in the north with their parents doesn’t mean they should sacrifice their education. That’s why this program is so key.”
TAMIU Vice President for Enrollment Management Juan Gilberto Garcia said that more than 350 TAMIU CAMP program students have been provided with resources they needed to succeed through services finely attuned to their unique needs and experiences.
CAMP will recruit and enroll 28 migrant and seasonal farmworkers yearly as full-time students, focusing on nine counties in the South Texas Plains with a concentration of migrant families.
“Our CAMP students are living proof that anything is possible,” Garcia said.
TAMIU President Pablo Arenaz said both programs are “stellar examples of collaboration and service.”
