Caring Across Communities Collaborative Empower ment Across Communiti es Portland, Maine Lead Agency: Multilingual and Multicultural Center Portland Public Schools

Empower ment Across Communiti es Portland, Maine Community Providers of Mental Health Schools and school-based MH providers Refugee Resettlement Other social service providers Children and families Public Health

Empower ment Across Communiti es Portland, Maine To design, develop, and implement a mental health service delivery response --from prevention, intervention, and treatment-- for immigrant and refugee children and youth that recognizes the cultural norms and values of their communities. The Overall Goal

Caring Across Communities Collaborative Empower ment Across Communiti es Portland, Maine Project Goals: Goal #1: To engage the target clients – refugee and immigrant families as well as mental health providers – in gathering essential input that will help inform the design, approach, and methodology of serving the mental health needs of refugee and immigrant children, youth, parents, and other adult members of the family. Goal #2: To strengthen, deepen, and expand understanding of mental health professionals, paraprofessionals, and educational staff about the cultural and historical backgrounds, life experiences, and acculturation of refugees and immigrants so that they are able to integrate services, policies, and practices that are respectful, culturally appropriate, and empowering. Goal #3: To increase the utilization and retention of refugee and immigrant children, youth, and their families in need of mental health services by building culturally responsive capacity and sustainable structures among mental health provider organizations and the school district.

Empower ment Across Communiti es Portland, Maine Who we serve Refugee/Immigrant Children and Youth and Their Families

The Partners Empower ment Across Communiti es Portland, Maine  Formal Partners  Advisory Partners  Supporters and Allies

Culturally Responsive Trauma-Informed Program and Activities Introspective Consultative Intercultural CAC Collaborative Steering Committee Meaningful Community Partnerships Approach to Empowerment

Community Engagement Strategies Empower ment Across Communiti es Portland, Maine Hire bicultural/bilingual staff as consultants and cultural brokers. Understand and appreciate the internal dynamics of communities. Honor and build on community interests, priorities, and assets. Support and visibility in community planned events including festivals. Leverage existing institutional relationships

Critical Elements to Successful Partnership Empower ment Across Communiti es Portland, Maine Shared vision and goals. Clearly defined roles and process for decision making. Structure for communication, planning, and evaluation. Introspection, reflection, and learning. Support for each other’s work and invested in each other’s success.

Key Learnings to Successful Parent/Community Engagement Empower ment Across Communiti es Portland, Maine Fluidity in approach and delivery of services and activities Process more important than outcomes Tolerance for ambiguity One’s culture as a default mode Importance of consultation and debrief processes involving leaders of target communities

Challenges Empower ment Across Communiti es Portland, Maine Penetrate and extend influence in established ‘turfdoms’. Political climate regarding immigration policies and perception of immigrants and refugees as a drain on the system. Language accessibility. Need for funders to collaborate and pull their resources together. Project sustainability.

Successes Empower ment Across Communiti es Portland, Maine Caseload of refugee and immigrant students among school-based social workers have more than doubled. Increase in knowledge and understanding of the target linguistic groups among school staff and community-based providers. Some funding received to expand and extend the goals of the project. Strong and meaningful collaboration.

Empower ment Across Communiti es Portland, Maine Community Providers of Mental Health Schools and school-based MH providers Refugee Resettlement Other social service providers Children and families Public Health

Outcomes: 1.Mental health professionals will provide services to immigrant and refugee students and their families that incorporate respect, cultural sensitivity, and cultural empowerment as measured by the outcome of training program and feedback from consumers. 2.Access to mental health service for immigrant and refugee students will be increased as evidenced by the increased number of students seeking help and the increased retention of students in care. Empower ment Across Communiti es Portland, Maine

Caring Across Communities Collaborative Empower ment Across Communiti es Portland, Maine

Parents and Community Members Bicultural Staff CAC Collaborative Steering Committee Formal/Informal Community Leaders Approach to Empowerment