Trauma and Community Resilience Center

The Boston Children’s Hospital Trauma and Community Resilience Center (BCH TCRC) is dedicated to understanding and promoting the healthy adjustment of youth and families who have experienced trauma and adversity. In partnership with communities and service systems, we build prevention and intervention programs, conduct research, and develop resources to assist refugee and immigrant families and service providers. At the BCH TCRC, we believe that social justice, equity, and human rights are at the core of a healthy society, and actively work to promote these values through our collaborative models of care for children and adolescents. We do not provide direct clinical services for youth. 

The BCH TCRC currently focuses on three core areas of programming: 

1. Refugee Trauma & Resilience
2. Multidisciplinary Models of Violence Prevention 
3. Trauma-Informed & Culturally-Responsive Training 

Further Learning 

• Above: A multidisciplinary group met Thursday, Feb 6, at Boston Children's Hospital to discuss how to address the many interrelated needs of children who spent time under ISIS as they repatriate to their countries of ethnic origin. 

• On the right: Dr. Heidi Ellis participates in a U.S. Institute of Peace kickoff event of their new Violent Extremist Disengagement and Reconciliation initiative, talking about the importance of understanding and addressing childhood trauma as countries accept back children who have spent time in ISIS-controlled territories. 

Read

• Read more about supporting children who have spent time in ISIS-controlled territories from Dr. Ellis' co-authored blog post at The Brookings Institution.
• Check out Restructuring for Resilience: A Toolkit for Reshaping Negative Narratives about Refugees Living in the United States, a resource created by our RTRC team and Boston College School of Social Work's Research Program on Children and Adversity.
• Read Boston Children's Hospital's Women in Science's advice for girls eyeing the field, featuring Dr. Alisa Miller. 
• Learn about our new book, Mental Health Practice with Immigrant and Refugee Youth: A Socioecological Framework, written by Drs. Heidi Ellis, Saida Abdi, and Jeffrey Winer.
• Check out the NCTSN resource, "A Socio-Culturally, Linguistically-Responsive, Trauma-Informed Approach to Mental Health Interpretation", whose production was led by the RTRC's Dr. Alisa Miller. 
• Description of our TST-R Cultural Brokering model from the perspective of a Somali cultural broker within the ShifaME program at Spurwink Services, an NCTSN partner and TST-R consultee.
• Read Dr. Emma Cardeli’s Boston Children’s Hospital blog post “Dispatch from Jordan: Improving care for war-wounded Syrian refugee youth”.
• Read about a program in Akron, Ohio implementing Trauma Systems Therapy for Refugees with consultation support from Drs. Luna Mulder and Alisa Miller.
• Read about a primer for juvenile court judges that presents a trauma-informed approach to judicial decision-making for newcomer immigrant youth in juvenile justice proceedings. Developed by Dr. Emma Cardeli, Ms. Osob Issa, and colleagues from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.

Listen

• Check out our podcast series, Parenting in a New Context: Strategies for Practitioners Supporting Refugee and Immigrant Caregivers, a collaboration with the Center for Resilient Families (University of Minnesota). This podcast series is available on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube. 
• Hear Dr. Saida Abdi describe our work on Minnesota Public Radio.
• Hear Dr. Heidi Ellis discuss refugee youth mental health on Gotham Chopra, Tom Brady, and Michael Strahan’s podcast “Why Sports Matter.” The Episode is entitled “Journey’s End (Belonging)” and follows a soccer team of young refugees in Buffalo, New York, USA.
• Hear Dr. Luna Mulder interviewed on NPR where she describes her experiences as both a clinical psychologist and a member of the Nepali-Bhutanese community.
• Dr. Saida Abdi, Dr. Alisa Miller, and Dr. Lisa Fortuna (BMC) present a webinar entitled “Trauma-Informed Care: Understanding and Addressing the Needs of Unaccompanied Children. Available in English and Spanish — requires creating a log in.

Celebrate

• Rajo Project (TST-R Canada) has been selected as the Winner for the Holistic Program Award at the 11th Annual Crime Prevention Ottawa Awards.
• Dr. Heidi Ellis honored with David S. Weiner Award for Leadership and Innovation in Child Health.