Community Belonging Project
The Community Belonging Measurement (CBM) project aims to measure belonging and resilience in Central Oregon (Crook, Deschutes, Jefferson, Northern Klamath Counties, and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs) to provide information that is useful for the creation of public health programs throughout the region. A community-engaged and equity-focused approach was used to collect survey and focus group data from Central Oregonians. The Central Oregon Health Council (COHC) contracted with K1ÌåÓý-Cascades’ researchers, Drs. Kothari and Lipscomb, and Oregon Health & Science University Community Research Hub to facilitate this project. The COHC will use the findings from this effort to inform investments in new public health initiatives.
Flame Retardants, Home Environments, and Children’s School Readiness Study
This multi-disciplinary study is co-led by faculty with vastly different areas of expertise. Together we seek to discover how exposure to chemical toxics affect early development, and how children’s social experiences may either accentuate, or protect them from, negative impacts of these potentially harmful chemicals. Innovative collaborations such as this can revolutionize how we think about and study human health and development.
Roots of Resilience
Roots of Resilience is an evidence-based professional development program to help early childhood teachers promote resilience with children impacted by trauma. With funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Dr. Lipscomb and the Roots of Resilience team developed the intervention, and studied both the implementation and impacts of the program with local early childhood teachers and children.
Stronger Youth Networks and Coping
Stronger Youth Networks and Coping (SYNC) is a group-based program designed to help adolescent youth in foster care to improve their coping and help-seeking. The SYNC program was designed to enhance usual services for transition age youth in care and includes near-peer facilitation. With funding from the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH), Dr. Kothari (co-Investigator) and the SYNC team developed the intervention and will test and evaluate feasibility and efficacy of the program.
Resilience Builders across the Globe
Young professionals around the world are building resilience to global threats in their own local communities who face trauma, war, natural disasters, and mental health crises. This project has three strategies:
- Launch an international research collaborative studying young people as agents of change to build resilience across the globe. A growing list of collaborators come from the U.S., Italy, Mexico, Israel, Pakistan, and other countries.
- Adapt and study the Tutors of Resilience (ToR) program for college students in the United States who are engaged in their communities through work or volunteering. ToR (Giordano & Ungar, 2021; Giordano et al., 2021) has been implemented with youth in Italy, the Ukraine, and Gaza, but has not yet been examined empirically with youth or young professionals.
- Establish an international network of young resilience builders. Students in the U.S. and Italy are now launching a (virtual) network in which youth and young professionals share ideas, debrief their experiences, support one another, and continue their learning in a global context for intercultural exchange. In 2025 the network will host a forum to build community and highlight their impactful work.
