Project SHIFA

About Project SHIFA

Project SHIFA operates from a social ecological model in which the child is part of a system that includes the child, family, school, neighborhood, culture and nation. Treating the child therefore also includes addressing the concerns and values of the child's family and broader community.

• Parent outreach focused on anti-stigma and psycho-education: Parent outreach, under the leadership of our partner the Refugee and Immigrant Assistance Center, reduces stigma of mental health within the Somali community through providing education about how stress and mental health problems affect children's functioning and ability to learn. Parents become active advocates for the children in their community, and a parent advisory board meets regularly to review the project. 

• School-based groups for students and trainings for teachers: Within the school, early intervention groups are conducted to help newly arriving Somali students manage the stressors of acculturation and socialization. These groups also serve to help identify youth who are in need of more intensive mental health services. Teacher trainings and consultation further minimize acculturative stress within the school setting and help teachers understand how learning and behavior may be affected by trauma. 

• Direct intervention for youth using an empirically-supported model of treatment, Trauma Systems Therapy: Those students who demonstrate significant mental health needs receive individualized mental health services under the Trauma Systems Therapy (TST) model. TST is a phase-based model of care that builds a child's emotional regulation skills while simultaneously targeting and reducing social environmental stressors that contribute to a child's emotional dysregulation. TST incorporates home-based care, school-based therapy, and legal advocacy to achieve these goals.

Within Project SHIFA, we believe that care is best provided by, or in partnership with, members of the Somali community. Boston University School of Social Work has facilitated the training and professional development of two Somali social work students, who are now licensed clinicians , provide mental health services under Project SHIFA, and who partner with additional social work trainees to build cultural understanding among providers.