Lisa Baron, EdD
Project Director, Center for Trauma Care in Schools
We are pleased to let our readers know about a recent podcast we produced in collaboration with the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), “Trauma-Informed Care for Unaccompanied Immigrant Youth.” This podcast describes implementing the STRONG (Supporting Transition Resilience of Newcomer Groups) model, led by a former unaccompanied minor, with two cohorts of unaccompanied and other newcomer children in the 4th and 7th grades in a public school in Boston, MA.
The podcast highlights the experience of leading the group by our cultural broker, Dorys Lemus, who came to the U.S. unaccompanied from El Salvador at age 17. Dorys is now both a STRONG-trained group leader in AIP’s Center for Trauma Care in Schools and a Trauma Systems Therapy for Refugees (TST-R) group leader for the Trauma and Community Resilience Center at Boston Children’s Hospital. STRONG is one of the trainings available to school-based clinicians as part of the NCS3 program. The NCTSN podcast produced last fall is a good way to learn firsthand about what it was like to lead the group and how enthusiastically the children engaged with it. It is timely, given the current surge of unaccompanied minors at the border.
If you are interested in learning more about STRONG and how you can receive training, contact us at connect@ncs3.org.