Community Dialogue and Needs Assessment for Trauma Informed Systems of Care for Resettled African Refugee Youth in New Hampshire (original) (raw)
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African Refugee Youths’ Stories of Surviving Trauma and Transition in U.S. Public Schools
The educational landscape for the United States has continued to shift with the arrival of African Muslim youth with refugee status. This phenomenological study examines the lived experiences of college-aged refugees (ages 18–22) attending various public (community and 4-year) colleges in the western United States. The participants’ (N=12) narratives address the carryover effects of trauma including the challenges of racism, discrimination, and Islamophobia. This discussion further explores the ways in which African refugee youth navigate and survive these sometimes discouraging challenges within their school setting. The findings suggested that strong parental bonds, religiosity, ethnic and cultural solidarity, as well as youths’ determination and motivation to attain their academic goals counterbalanced hostile experiences from their U.S.-born peers. This article concludes by (a) proposing that educators look beyond curriculum goals and the depersonalized structures, and (b) reasserting the important role of social workers in academic institutions providing culturally responsive mental health services to African Muslim students from refugee backgrounds.
Building bridges between refugee parents and schools
2009
This interview study examines the way practitioners in Wisconsin public schools created conditions to facilitate refugee parent involvement. Practitioners’ perceptions of barriers to refugee parents’ school involvement are explored as well as the strategies used to promote meaningful parent involvement. Interviewees included nine school practitioners who worked closely with recently arrived Hmong students. The findings of the study suggest school practitioners considered the following barriers to refugee parent involvement: (1) language proficiency; (2) time constraints due to family socio‐economic status and traditional family structures; (3) deferential attitudes towards school authority. Strategies viewed as useful to the interviewees included: (1) creating a parent liaison position; (2) tapping into existing community service organisations; (3) providing parent education programmes. While the findings illuminate ways school practitioners and policy‐makers may better facilitate t...
Journal of School Health, 2017
BACKGROUND: The US education system must find creative and effective ways to foster the healthy development of the approximately 2 million newly arrived immigrant and refugee adolescents, many of whom contend with language barriers, limited prior education, trauma, and discrimination. We identify research priorities for promoting the school success of these youth. METHODS: The study used the 4-phase priority-setting method of the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative. In the final stage, 132 researchers, service providers, educators, and policymakers based in the United States were asked to rate the importance of 36 research options. RESULTS: The highest priority research options (range 1 to 5) were: evaluating newcomer programs (mean = 4.44, SD = 0.55), identifying how family and community stressors affect newly arrived immigrant and refugee adolescents' functioning in school (mean = 4.40, SD = 0.56), identifying teachers' major stressors in working with this population (mean = 4.36, SD = 0.72), and identifying how to engage immigrant and refugee families in their children's education (mean = 4.35, SD = 0.62). CONCLUSION: These research priorities emphasize the generation of practical knowledge that could translate to immediate, tangible benefits for schools. Funders, schools, and researchers can use these research priorities to guide research for the highest benefit of schools and the newly arrived immigrant and refugee adolescents they serve.
Supporting the developmental health of refugee children and youth
Paediatrics & Child Health, 2017
The Canadian Government has announced that over 50,000 refugees from the Middle East will be resettled in Canada by 2018. More than one-third of these refugees are expected to be children. The Canadian Paediatric Society has called for the Canadian government to prepare for the influx of these children. This should include addressing developmental, behavioural, and mental health needs. The focus of this paper is the role of paediatricians and family physicians in caring for the developmental health of refugee children, as a means of supporting their developmental and learning potential. The authors suggest the use of EMPOWER (Education, Migration, Parents and Family, Outlook, Words, Experience of Trauma and Resources), a mnemonic checklist they developed for assessing developmental risk factors in refugee children. EMPOWER can be used along with online web resources such as Caring For Kids New to Canada in providing evidence-informed care to these children.
Social Science & Medicine, 2012
Immigrant parents' perceptions of child protective services may have important implications for their engagement in public institutions that are central to their children's well being. The current study examined West African immigrants' perceptions of child welfare authorities and the role of disciplining and monitoring in these communities' meaning making. A multiethnic group of 59 West African immigrants (32 parents and 27 adolescent children) living in the United States were interviewed in 18 focus groups and eight individual interviews between December 2009 and July 2010. Data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach; strategies for rigor included triangulation (multiple interview formats, varied composition of groups, multiple coders for each transcript), verification (follow-up interviewing, feedback to community-based organizations), and auditability. Primary among parents' concerns were "911" (used to refer to the police and child protective authorities), the loss of collective child monitoring networks, and threats to their children posed by "American" values and neighborhood violence. Children were concerned with parents' close monitoring that resulted in boredom and a sense that parents did not recognize them for adhering to their families' values. Feedback from CBOs suggested that parents got their information about child protective policies from children but that although misinformed they were accurate in their negative assessment of contact. Not unlike in other urban populations, West African immigrants' disciplinary tactics are instrumental, oriented towards protecting their children from the multiple dangers perceived in their surroundings, but may also put them at risk for contact with child protective services. Results suggest that "911" results from a "loss spiral" (Hobfoll, 1989) that begins as West Africans resettle without collective child monitoring networks, leading to increased concern for their children's safety, and interacting with a schoolhome disciplinary mismatch that may increase the likelihood of contact with child protection.
Caring for Refugee Youth in the School Setting
NASN school nurse (Print), 2016
Annually, over 80,000 refugees enter the United States as a result of political or religious persecution. Of these, approximately 35% to 40% are children and adolescents. Refugees are faced with challenges associated with living conditions, cultural and social norms, and socioeconomic status due to problems occurring in their homelands. These challenges include but are not limited to malnutrition, communicable disease, questionable immunization status, lack of formal education, sexual abuse, violence, torture, human trafficking, homelessness, poverty, and a lack of access to health care. Moreover, the psychological impact of relocation and the stress of acculturation may perpetuate many of these existing challenges, particularly for refugee youth, with limited or underdeveloped coping skills. School nurses are uniquely poised to support refugee youth in the transition process, improve overall health, and facilitate access to primary health services. The purpose of this article is to...