Opening Doors to Opportunity for Refugees: Addressing Toxic Stress and Child and Family Well-Being for Refugee Children and Adults

The Office of Refugee Resettlement through the BRIDGES Project held a webinar, "Opening Doors to Opportunity for Refugees: Addressing Toxic Stress and Child and Family Well-Being for Refugee Children and Adults," on for Wednesday, September 9, 2015 from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. EDT. This free webinar discussed the importance of policies and practices that are being used by agencies and community-based organizations across the country to equip refugee parents and children with the income, tools, and skills needed to improve economic stability. It showcased organizations utilizing promising practices for establishing and implementing approaches that address the toxic stress and the loss of executive functioning has on refugee family and child well-being, while highlighting how programs utilize individual and family strength-based approaches.

Speakers:
1. Moderator: Dr. Allison Hyra, Fellow, ICF International
2. Dr. Theresa Betancourt, Director of the Research Program on Children and Global Adversity at the Harvard School of Public Health; Affiliated Faculty member of the Harvard Center on the Developing Child.
3. Kathleen Cloutier, Executive Director, Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island
4. Ardiana Halilaj, Clinical Supervisor and Lacey Dean, Family Engagement Specialist, Refugee and Immigrant Family Empowerment Center, IRCO