Tax Deductible Donations to our humanitarian programs can be made through our partner organization: International Humanistic Psychology Association, a US Federal 501(c)3 Nonprofit.
Community-based Pilot Service Projects
The central mission of CBI’s Social Health Care program is local capacity building through training new service providers and strengthening existing local service NGOs.
As such it develops and operates community-based, wholistic psychosocial services as pilot projects to:
1) Provide direct psychosocial treatment services to individuals and communities experiencing profound trauma and psycho-emotional suffering,
2) Model and demonstrate treatment approaches and methods,
3) Provide practical field experience and supervision for trainees in the use of learned skills, and
4) Demonstrate effective community-based service delivery models that can be established, operated, sustained, and replicated in conditions where:
• there are large at-risk populations experiencing overwhelming hardship and suffering, including pervasive trauma, upheavel, and loss,
• the human service infrastructure is either significantly under developed or severely compromised due to war, catastrophe, or turmoil, and
• there are scarce material and skill resources.
CURRENT SERVICE PROJECTS:
Residential Treatment Services:
Center for Healing and Renewal
A community-based residential service offering a broad range of activities housed within a positive, stable residential center for 40 families made up of Syrian refugee widows and their children. The goal is to provide a secure environment for healing and prepare individuals and families for recovery and moving forward with their lives through promoting empowerment, independence, and a self-help community.
Building management staff are provided with basic support and intervention skills training and English lessons to increase their ability to support residents and communicate with visiting clinical team members.
The service model is designed to be holistic and whole-person in addressing essential multifaceted and inter-linked needs of the individual and community, and to be a project that can be replicated, portable, scalable, and operate in situations where there are scarce resources.
Common Bond Institute partners with Michigan State University and the International Humanistic Psychology Association on this program.
Location: Amman, Jordan
Service Recipients:
A community of 40 families composed of Syrian Refugee widows and their children housed in an apartment building completely dedicated to this population, and managed by supportive staff 24/7.
Need areas addressed:
1) Safe and adequate quality housing in a positive, supportive environment,
2) Psychosocial treatment: child, individual, and family treatment
3) Women’s Support group
4) Coping, self-help, and daily living skills training
o Stress and mood management.
o Nonviolent communications.
o Interpersonal relationship communications.
o Assertive problem solving and decision making.
o Effective parenting in stressful situations.
o Self-help and self-advocacy.
o Peer support.
5) Community rebuilding, resilience, and empowerment:
Preparation as a “self-help community,” including training
selected residents as peer aides.
6) Basic intervention and support skills training for apartment staff
7) English as a 2nd language
Day Treatment Services:
Women’s Safe Spaces
A community-based day psychosocial day service project where vulnerable refugee women and girls can feel secure, comfortable, and nurtured in receiving psycho-social support, healthcare services, and basic personal needs, and where they can acquire skills to regain their dignity and confidence to help them heal and cope with their traumatic experiences to successfully recover. It provides a consistently available and inviting place for women and young girls to come together whenever they are feeling vulnerable or need guidance and support from psychosocial service staff, aid workers, and volunteers, and where they can regularly interact with and support each other as a mutual support system
Services The Project Is Created To Provide Include:
• Trauma recovery treatment to heal the effects of psycho-emotional trauma,
• Parenting skills support for mothers to help combat psychosocial challenges related to child care and protecting teenage daughters,
• Building self-esteem, empowerment, and resilience, along with mental and physical strength through:
o Supportive counseling.
o Coping and personal empowerment skills training.
o Educational and vocational skills support.
o Education and materials on women’s health issues.
o Support for new mothers through newborn care and feeding techniques, nutritional awareness for Pregnant/lactating women, and distribution of prenatal and infant vitamins and supplements.
o Physical exercise.
o Craft and creative activities.
o Mutual social support
Culturally Adapted Coping and Personal Empowerment Skills Training is provided by our international and local pool of expert trainers, both on-site and through live virtual classes.
Examples are:
• Stress and mood management.
• Nonviolent communications.
• Interpersonal relationship communications.
• Assertive problem solving and decision making.
• Effective parenting in stressful situations.
• Self-help and self-advocacy.
• Peer support.
Examples of Educational and Vocational Support are:
• Classes in basic academics, and English as a 2nd language
• Classes in vocational skills, employment preparation, and micro-enterprise operation.
Through the combination of these support services the project works to:
• Reduce stress, depression, fear, and despair, and aid in healing trauma and loss.
• Reduce trauma symptoms in children.
• Reduce incidences of exploitation and abuse.
• Reduce high rates of c-sections and miscarriages, malnutrition, exhaustion, excessive stress, and poor self-care in pregnant women and new mothers, and ensure good health for them and their babies.
• Build self-esteem, personal empowerment, dignity, and resilience among women and girls.
As another benefit to the NGOs and those they serve, NGO staff are offered free certified psychosocial skills training to bolster their overall skill level and service capacity to ensure a permanent and expanding investment in the local human service system struggling to address the massive needs in Jordan
The 1st Women’s Safe Space was established in October, 2017 in partnership with Family and Children’s Protection Society in Irbid, Jordan, which is hosting the site.
CBI and IHPA are preparing to expand on and replicate this project at other locations in Jordan to be accessible to more women and girls.
School-based Services
Trauma-Informed Schools
Trauma and Educational Recovery
For Syrian Refugee Students
A pilot project integrating trauma healing, recovery, and resilience building for Syrian refugee children and their families into the regular school setting. The project is also appropriate for other vulnerable student populations.
Purpose:
• To demonstrate a trauma-informed school model serving the psych-emotional and educational needs of at-risk students and their families where trauma is an active element and influencer, as well as supporting school staff in more effectively responding to unique needs of these students and families within the academic setting.
• To provide a viable and successful template for scaling up and replicating the model at other schools in Jordan, and particularly schools serving refugee and at risk students.
Service Components:
Coping/Resilience Building:
• Teaching children stress management, self-soothing, self-esteem, self awareness, impulse control, sensitivity to others, positive relationship skills, non-violent communication, positive and assertive problem solving and decision making, self-advocacy, conflict resolution skills, and bullying prevention through specialized classroom instruction, interactive games, group exercises, noncompetitive/cooperative sports, expressive arts, multimedia materials, etc. and fully incorporating this material into the regular school curriculum.
• Training for school teachers and administrators in identifying, understanding, and being sensitive to psycho- emotional trauma symptoms and how they impact learning, learning basic supportive responses to students and parents, and offering parents support and guidance in how to assist their child’s psycho-emotional needs in terms of school performance.
• Training for parents in coping skills and parenting children experiencing trauma symptoms.
• Instituting an anti-bullying and peer mediator program.
• Psychosocial counseling and support to children and families experiencing trauma symptoms.
• Building resilience, internal resources, cohesion, and experiences of joy for students and their families to help strengthen and sustain a sense of well-being physically, mentally, and emotionally through social- cultural events, recreation activities based on mutual support and teamwork, and experiences with nature.
Student and School Support:
• Assisting students in obtaining needed school tuition, materials, and supplies
• Assisting schools serving refugees in obtaining needed equipment, materials, and supplies
School Pen Pal program:
Linking the school with a school in the US for mutual benefits – including peer support and solidarity with others their own age in a global community, increased mutual cultural understanding and appreciation, improving language skills, and promoting joint student projects, as well as linking teachers and administrations to offer opportunities for potential cooperation.
Health Assessment and Evaluation:
• Using interactive, trauma-informed methods, such as expressive art therapy / play therapy, to identify children in need of more focused psychosocial treatment.
• Medical screening, health consults and guidance, and referral to other medical NGOs CBI cooperates with.
English as a 2nd Language:
• ESL training to allow students and teachers access to English-based educational and psychosocial support resource materials and on-line classes, to communicate more effectively with English-based humanitarian aid services, and to better communicate through the Pen Pal feature.
Youth and Community Resilience Building
To help bolster and nourish the internal resources and capacity for healing of refugee children, their families, and the community in general, this project provides beneficial and nourishing experiences of nature, recreation, joy, cultural cohesiveness, celebration, and self-confidence in support of our trauma treatment services through organizing and conducting activities that include:
1) Group Nature Excursions to nearby reserves and wild life refuges.
2) Recreational Activities at municipal parks, gardens, playgrounds, and sports fields.
3) Community Social-Cultural Events at these public sites geared to children and adolescents, such as concerts, picnics, dances, clown performances, face painting, etc.
These community events are also used as opportunities to provide parents with information on simple techniques for assisting and comforting children when exhibiting symptoms of trauma at home, such as night terrors and panic attacks, in school, etc.
4) Recreational activities and materials in their neighborhoods and at their residents.
5) Self-Help Skills Training for children utilizing games, sports, and expressive arts.
Public Health Education
Providing education to the general population on psycho-social issues, symptoms, and self-help coping skills to increase awareness, understanding, sensitivity, and ability for mutual support and self-care, and to inform about available services.
~ PLEASE DONATE ~
to Support Our Humanitarian Services
Make a Tax Deductible Contribution in support of providing these critical services to refugees through our 501(c)3 nonprofit partner organization: International Humanistic Psychology Association (IHPA)
GlobalGiving vetted Organization since 2015
