Trauma and Community Resilience Center at Boston Children’s Hospital: A Treatment and Service Adaptation Center with Expertise in Immigrant and Refugee Children and Families - Trauma and Community Resilience Center at Boston Children’s Hospital: A Treatment and Service Adaptation Center with Expertise in Immigrant and Refugee Children and Families The purpose of the project “Trauma and Community Resilience Center at Boston Children’s Hospital: A Treatment and Service Adaptation Center with Expertise in Immigrant and Refugee Children and Families” is to provide national expertise on trauma-informed services for refugee and immigrant children and their families, and to support the continued adaptation and wide-spread dissemination of Trauma Systems Therapy for Refugees, an effective evidence-based treatment. The TCRC will provide widely-accessible training on best practices in trauma-informed care for refugee and immigrant children, as well as serve as a resource for providers working with other traumatized populations and in response to emerging needs, e.g., disasters. Almost half of all children living in the United States will report at least one adverse childhood experience by age 18; childhood trauma is linked to long-term consequences in adulthood. Young refugees and immigrants – who make up one-quarter of U.S. youth, or about 18.5 million children – report high levels of trauma exposure before, during and after migration, yet face particular barriers to accessing effective treatment. We seek to improve care for traumatized immigrant and refugee children and families through the following goals: 1) To support wide-scale dissemination of Trauma Systems Therapy for Refugees (TST-R), an evidence-based practice for immigrants and refugees, 2) To provide national expertise through training, education, and consultation on trauma-informed services for traumatized children and families, including in response to disasters or other emerging needs, with a special focus on refugees and immigrants, and 3) To collaborate with local, regional, and national stakeholders to promote best trauma-informed intervention practices with refugee and immigrant youth and their families within a broad range of service systems and providers. We expect to provide technical assistance to at least 20 organizations implementing TST-R, develop resources to support TST-R dissemination and a Train the Trainer program, develop three sets of guidelines and recommendations related to sustainability of evidence-based models, and adapt TST-R for youth with Central American backgrounds. We further anticipate providing a virtual training series in Immigrant and Refugee Best Practices reaching 800 service providers across diverse sectors, expanding our online Refugee Core Stressors and Strengths Toolkit which will reach more than 5000 individuals, and provide additional trainings in emergent trauma-related needs (e.g. disasters) to 300 individuals/year. We will advance implementation science for evidence-based models serving refugees and immigrants through our Annual Stakeholder meeting and associated products. We will incorporate community and practitioner throughout our activities through a National Implementation Science and Practice Advisory Board and associated National Ethnic Community-Based Organization Advisory Board, and broaden our reach and impact through collaboration with other SAMHSA-funded centers both within and beyond the NCTSN. We will serve approximately 2,000 providers annually, or 10,000 over the life of the grant.
