Immigrant Youth: Health and Resilience
The Tisch College Community Research Center (TCRC) provided seed funding for a research partnership between Tufts faculty members and local community organizations in order to examine, understand, and document how school-based and after-school programs support the school achievement of children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
The project resulted in a set of pilot studies to examine the characteristics of youth programs designed to support youths’ strengths and community affiliations to facilitate their resilience and mental health. The team examined youth programs at two project sites, The Welcome Project and the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Association (BCNC), in order to develop and pilot test measures and assessment procedures to examine these innovative interventions. At BCNC, one study was a formative assessment of the Girls’ Values leadership program for girls, while another was an interview study of immigrant youth who were involved in the summer programs at BCNC but did not subsequently maintain their participation. At The Welcome Project, the team studied the Liaison Interpreters Program of Somerville (LIPS) and the Digital Stories Program.
Another important aim was to document and delineate the parameters of the community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach used to implement the project. As a CBPR project, these studies were conducted in conjunction with local leaders and organizations.
For more information about this research, contact Doug Brugge.
Participants
- Jayanthi Mistry
- Jean Wu
- Laurel Leslie
- Warren Goldstein-Gelb, The Welcome Project
- Maria Landaverde, The Welcome Project
- Sophia Kim, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center
- Jennifer Taub, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center
- Alex Pirie, Immigrant Service Providers Group/Health (ISPG/H)
- Sarah Dávila, Somerville Public Schools