The proposed NCTSI III project will target resettled refugee and other traumatized immigrant youth age 10 to 17, and their families, who have experienced traumatic events. The project will target this population within the following geographic catchment area: greater Burlington, Vermont. The Burlington area is Vermont’s only refugee resettlement community, having resettled nearly several thousand refugees during the past five years. Refugee and other vulnerable immigrant youth in Vermont frequently experience flashbacks to traumas experienced before, during, and after forced migration. The Association of Africans Living in Vermont – this project’s primary applicant – is keenly aware of the interplay between (1) the youth who experienced and continue to express trauma and (2) the youth’s social environment as fundamental to intervening and helping a youth recover from trauma.
The proposed, five-year project will implement the evidence-based Trauma Systems Therapy for Refugees by imbedding multilingual clinician and cultural broker teams in area middle and high schools with high numbers of refugee and vulnerable immigrants. AALV and its mental health clinic partner, Vermont Psychological Services, will partner with Boston Children’s Hospital, Trauma and Community Resiliency Center, the developer of TST-R, to provide TST-R training and technical assistance. The University of Minnesota, Department of Social Work will provide data management technical assistance and the project evaluation.
The TST-R approach includes three prevention and intervention components: (1) community engagement, (2) prevention and early intervention, and (3) intensive intervention, with services delivered at schools, outpatient clinics, at families’ homes, and in the community. The project operates along four treatment tiers of the social ecological model and applies a phase-based method of treatment. The project will operate this model in Burlington and Winooski Schools.
The proposed project contemplates assisting 350 refugee and other vulnerable immigrant youth during the five-year project period.