New Issue Brief on supporting immigrant and refugee students and families

If your mentoring program is working with a significant immigrant and refugee population, this new issue brief from the Center for health and health care in Schools may be of interest: Partnering with Parents and Families to Support Immigrant and Refugee Children at School.

The report notes that simply addressing academic and language issues with these students may not be the most effective way to improve their outcomes. It discusses the importance of schools and service providers recognizing the mental health needs of immigrant and refugee students, and engaging the entire family in addressing them. In doing so, schools can build a crucial home-school partnership that may open doors to student success.

The report offers some useful background on immigrant and refugee families that could be useful in training and supporting mentors who are working with these youth. And if your school partners are not currently addressing these mental health needs you might be able to provide some education around the topic to administrators and work with the school to help build capacity in this area.

To read the report, click here