Research

Project SHIFA

We are currently evaluating our school-based mental health intervention for Somali youth, Project SHIFA in Lewiston and Auburn, ME. The results from our evaluation of Project SHIFA in Boston are in press and will be coming soon. The findings suggest that community-wide acceptance of the program led to high rates of engagement of children and families in services and a significant decrease in PTSD symptoms over 8 months. Alongside the positive mental health outcomes for Somali youth, involvement in Project SHIFA is also associated with increased parental involvement with the school, increased sense of school belonging, and a decrease in school rejection. For more information, see the Project SHIFA main page.

Media project

In 2011, we conducted a mixed methods study exploring how media coverage of Somalia and Somalis in the diaspora affects Somali youth. Our quantitative interview data assesses trauma, discrimination, social bonds (to both U.S. and Somali communities), mental health, religiosity, posttraumatic growth, nationalism, and openness to legal and/or illegal means of achieving political change. In addition, we conducted nine focus groups with a subset of youth in our sample. Within the focus groups we presented headlines from media coverage of Somali-Americans and Somalis, including headlines clustered around the topic of gangs, terrorism, and piracy. We used these prompts to foster discussions around what it means to be Somali-American.

Understanding communities and resettlement

The overall goal of this study is to gain greater understanding of risk and protective factors associated with mental health of Somali adolescents resettled in the United States. More specifically, we examine resettlement and normative developmental processes such as developing ethnic identity and intergenerational conflict as related to posttraumatic stress symptoms and depression in Somali adolescents.

Minerva initiative

In the past few years, there has been much talk on national and international news about links between refugee/immigrant youth and violence. This discussion has often taken place without the voices of those who are most affected by the violence and its aftermath, the refugee and immigrant communities themselves. This has especially been true of the Somali community. Our decade-long partnership with the Somali community has allowed us to understand that the community itself has identified youth violence and vulnerability to violent extremist ideologies as important issues. We have built our research program upon the idea that the Somali community has a central stake in both preventing violence and violent extremism among its youth and also in identifying and countering such actions and/or ideology. In this project we will explore the pathways leading from a shared refugee experience to diverse outcomes among Somali refugees: why do some embrace greater openness to violent extremism, while others with shared life experiences move towards gangs, crime, or resilient outcomes such as non-violent extremism? Central to our approach is the premise that communities are not the problem when it comes to countering violence and violent extremism. They are the solution. Our ultimate goal is to work with our community partners, our greatest assets, to identify community resources that can help strengthen social bonds and build capacity so that community members themselves become knowledgeable, skillful and respected partners in addressing the threat of violence.

Refugee Trauma and Resilience Center

Intervention Research

Project SHIFA

Media project

Understanding communities and resettlement

Minerva initiative