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Our Services

Research

Our research has a clear priority – to better understand and therefore how to treat – those who are suffering in the most remote parts of the world affected by violence. Oftentimes, programs do not include an evaluation of their intervention – unfortunately with many good-sounding programs having adverse consequences. We aim to provide only quality programs that have proven to improve the lives of those often gone neglected.

Training

Our community programs brings hope to hard to reach communities to break barriers to access. We provide programs targeting intergenerational violence while influencing physical and mental health, as well as social, economic, and community well- being that works for people of all cultures and countries.


Clinical SUPPORT

We provide training and education for various agencies, ranging from community based organizations, academic institutions, and governmental agencies to build awareness and capacity for organizations serving survivors of social injustices. Our clients learn new techniques and intervention frameworks to become more effective in enacting policy and implementing care.

 

Research

With deep roots in international clinical research and extensive experience working with youth in armed conflict zones, we have seen, first-hand, how violence impacts the physical, psychological, and emotional state of survivors. Our research has demonstrated its ability to affect meaningful change to enact policies, mitigate violence, and change lives for current and future generations.

​Our research has a clear priority – to better understand and therefore how to treat – those who are suffering in the most remote parts of the world affected by violence. Oftentimes, programs do not include an evaluation of their intervention – unfortunately with many good-sounding programs having adverse consequences. We aim to provide only quality programs that have proven to improve the lives of those often gone neglected. We also realize that many organizations have excellent programs that do work, but have not yet been researched and work to help provide that evidence as well as build evaluation capacity for agencies. Our unique research approach takes a multi-modal method to understanding the needs and how to best help people around the world affected by extreme violence. At the forefront of our research is the PERSON, not the funding body/donor, government, or researcher’s academic tenor.

  • Targeted. We only work in countries where we have good local relationships – where people have invited us to come, requesting for help.

  • Collaborative. We include local communities in the entire process, from development of the question, design and implementation, and discussion of results.​

  • Ethnographic Approach. We take an ethnographic approach. Many scales are developed in high-income countries and not necessarily valid or appropriate for low-income communities suffering from armed conflict. Therefore, ethnographic approaches and mixed qualitative and quantitative methods are needed.

 

Social programs

Our innovative social program assists survivors of violence at horizontal – individual, family, and community levels, as well as vertical -health, economic, and social levels. Many survivors of violence and migration encounter barriers of accessible and culturally competent health care and face a stigma against mental health and trauma. We directly address these barriers through our 5 programs, driven by clinical experience and empirical research.

Our innovative programs targets intergenerational violence while influencing physical and mental health, as well as social, economic, and community well- being that works for people of all cultures and countries. we provide services throughout 5 communities in 3 states. Our comprehensive programs serve more than 1,000 men, women and children.

Around the world, 1 in 10 children are living in areas affected by conflict and war. Violence and armed conflict have displaced 65.6 million people as refugees, asylum seekers or internally displaced persons. The generational effects of violence include a lifetime risk of stress for children who have experienced violence and whose parents have experienced violence. Those who have experienced extreme violence as well as traumatic migration from their home countries may lose sense of who they were. Their identities have changed and they may have difficulty knowing where their experiences belong in their lives. We work with individuals to build a cohesive narrative to begin the process of identifying as an empowered survivor. We include family in the narrative, to show how personal traumas may have affected our ways of relating to intimate partners and children.

 
 

Education & Training

We provide trainings for various agencies, ranging from community based organizations (ex. Northern Virginia Family Services), academic institutions (ex. George Washington University Medical School, Stanford University, University of Michigan, University of Addis Ababa), and governmental agencies (ex. U.S. State Department, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Defense, Department of Labor, Department of Education).

Helping the helpers is an important aspect of restoring dignity for survivors. As policies and research studies can directly impact the mental health and wellbeing of survivors, we focus on educating and fostering discussion among those who are working on legal, policy, government, and research angles.