Immigrant and Refugee Mental Health Toolkit (posted 11/20)

Recognizing the unique mental health challenges facing growing numbers of immigrant and refugee children, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) launched a national program to reduce emotional and behavioral health problems among school children in low-income, immigrant and refugee families. The program, Caring Across Communities: Addressing Mental Health Needs of Diverse Children and Youth, brings together 15 projects that are operated by a partnership involving schools, families, students, mental health agencies and other community organizations to build effective, easily-accessed services for children and youth.  Caring Across Communities has released a toolkit that provides an overview of the program, the context for its development, and fact sheets and stories from the field. To download the brief click here.

Additionally, Caring Across Communities has released a new publication entitled "Helping immigrant and refugee students succeed: It’s not just what happens in the classroom."  The publication addresses the fact that problematic behaviors exhibited by students have a direct impact on student success and the importance of engaging families for student academic achievement has been well documented.  Eileen Gale Kugler and Olga Acosta Price share a number of successful strategies used to engage immigrant and refugee families in support of their children’s mental health.  To download the publication click here.