Our overall learning goals for our participants throughout the program are to:

• Understand and empathize with the lived experiences of refugees, asylum seekers, and asylees before displacement, during displacement, and after resettlement
• Celebrate, uplift, and empower the resilience, culture, and joy of the refugee, asylee, and asylum seeker community
• Develop basic mental health literacy and a broad understanding of trauma-informed processes
• Develop our intersectional understanding of this social issue from the individual level, to the interpersonal level, to the institutional level
  • Investigate the intersections between mental health and language barriers, poverty, education, housing, family status, and environment
  • Investigate the barriers to accessing care specific to refugees, asylees, and asylum seekers
• Understand and advocate for mechanisms that can better support refugees and asylees and improve their quality of life
  • Gain skills in advocacy
  • Gain skills in digital advocacy
• Understand how policy shapes the experiences of this population, and identify areas that have the potential for positive and negative change
• Work with Houston-based community partners in a sustainable and equitable way and engage in continued action after completion of program