Facilitating trauma-informed SEL with refugee youth in Uganda via an international research-practice partnership: Lessons learned from The Wellbeing Club

Abstract

In this article, we introduce a research-practice partnership (RPP) between the University of California San Diego and the non-governmental organization (NGO), Africa Education and Leadership Initiative (Africa ELI), and we share the lessons we learned as we adapted and facilitated The Wellbeing Club, a trauma-informed social and emotional learning (TI-SEL) curriculum, for refugee youth in Uganda. First, we describe our RPP and the goals of our work together. Then, we describe The Wellbeing Club, including its theoretical foundations and curriculum. In the sections that follow, we reflect on lessons learned for effective TI-SEL implementation from the facilitation of The Wellbeing Club with 48 primarily South Sudanese refugee youth: adapting the curriculum to the cultural context, sharing stories of resilience, developing environmental and contextual awareness, developing self-awareness, modeling caring practice, involving youth in changemaking processes, identifying and addressing underlying trauma, and supporting one another in research and practice. In each section, we provide specific examples from practice to illustrate the themes. We conclude with key takeaways and next steps.