Project RESPECT - Refugees for Empowerment, Security and Protection by Engaging Communities Together

Project RESPECT - Refugees for Empowerment, Security and Protection by Engaging Communities Together

Funding agency: DIAC Displaced Persons Program
Duration: 2012-2013

The Centre for Refugee Research (CRR) received funding from DIAC's Displaced Persons Program to develop a project in partnership with NSW STARTTS and SOMSTARTTS, the Somalia Service For the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors.

CRR will be developing a model of project delivery for psychosocial support to refugees and asylum seekers of the Somali community Kenya. Working within a human rights framework and a community development approach, a key outcome of the project will be the development of a project design framework of psychosocial training including a 'toolbox' of effective responses to trauma, which can later be adapted to different refugee and Internally Displaced populations.

This project model will enhance the identification of refugees at risk, particularly women and girls, and the provision of effective and targeted support. The project will establish community-based pilot projects, which will be designed, planned, implemented and evaluated by the Somali refugee community, with the support of the project-funded local project coordinators, and focus on delivery of psychosocial support. Training will begin in January 2013.

Key contact
Dr Linda Bartolomei: linda.bartolomei@unsw.edu.au