Our Approach

The STAR team is a group of dedicated clinicians, researchers, scholars and advocates working to:

  1. Understand the risk and protective factors involved in the healthy development of children, families and communities exposed to trauma and adversity
  2. Develop, implement and evaluate evidence-based, culturally-responsive behavioral health programs and prevention services for children, families and communities experiencing trauma and adversity.

Currently, much of our work is focused on understanding the needs of children and families with complex medical conditions, such as genetic disorders and epilepsy and finding ways to integrate trauma-informed protocols and behavioral health care into primary and complex pediatric systems. Other partners and populations with whom we work include allying with communities of color, collaborating with community and faith-based organizations and supporting the prevention of adverse childhood experiences through school and family programs.

We do our work by:

  1. Partnering with youth, families, communities to better understand their strengths, needs and experiences
  2. Being informed by providers, systems and policy makers to ensure programs are practical, sustainable and effective
  3. Using rigorous qualitative and quantitative research methods within community-based participatory and implementation science research designs
  4. Addressing stress, trauma and adversity through developing, implementing and evaluating intervention and prevention programs that not only provide skills and resources but leverage the unique community strengths of those we work with
  5. Actively working to be anti-racist, anti-oppressive, culturally humble, and responsive in all we do.