Collaborative for resilient kids and families in minnesota - the collaborative for resilient kids and families in minnesota is a partnership between the university of minnesota school of social…

Collaborative for resilient kids and families in minnesota - the collaborative for resilient kids and families in minnesota is a partnership between the university of minnesota school of social work, watercourse counseling center, somali american parents association (SAPA), comunidades latinas unidas EN servicio (CLUES), minneapolis public schools (MPS), and boston childrens hospital's trauma and community resilience center. This collaboration aims to provide trauma-responsive, culturally, and linguistically relevant mental health support to east african and latinx children, youth, and their families in minneapolis. Refugee and immigrant children in the US often present with trauma. However, they rarely receive services due to systemic barriers including a lack of linguistically and culturally available services, affordability, mistrust of care provision, and stigma. This project will use trauma systems therapy for refugees (TST-R), an adaptation of trauma systems therapy (TST). TST is an evidence-based widely effective model of care for treating children and families with trauma histories. TST-R was designed to meet the specific cultural needs of refugee children and families, particularly attending to the context in which services are provided, impacting utilization and access. TST-R uses a multi-tier framework focusing on (1) community education; (2) promotion of psychological wellness; (3) prevention through trauma-responsive social environments; and (4) timely interventions (social skill building and increasing perceived belongingness and connection). Tier 4 includes clinical interventions that occur at group, individual, and family-levels for youth who need a higher level of care. The collaborative will use an implementation science framework to assess the TST-R intervention within the service context, specifically attending to how the local ecology, social norms, and community culture impacts the efficacy of the intervention with youth participants. IT will also assess the implementation of the intervention within new contexts. The collaborative will provide trauma-responsive outreach and education to approximately 2000 community members, predominately in years 1 and 2. At least 660 youth will receive skills-based group services and 422 will receive both individual and home-based services. The population served will be approximately equal numbers of males and females from both east african latinx communities. The project objectives include (1) engaging latinx and east african communities in trauma-responsive mental health services at all services levels; (2) improving psychosocial outcomes for east african and latinx children attending MPS; (3) increasing capacity in minnesota to address refugee and immigrant trauma that reflects cultural needs; and (4) utilizing outcome evaluation data to increase support and sustainability for the model statewide.