For Mental Health Awareness Month 2022, David Orellana Delgado (YEDI/LEAP Fellow 2021-22) wrote about his experience as an undergraduate research assistant with the Fuerte Program, a primary and secondary school-based prevention program created to support the health and well-being of recently-immigrated Latinx newcomer students in the San Francisco Unified School District.
David Orellana Delgado
The Fuerte Program: Serving Latinx Newcomer Youth in the San Francisco County
During this academic year, I was an undergraduate research assistant for the Fuerte Program, a primary and secondary school-based prevention program created to support recently-immigrated Latinx newcomer students in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). Created as a response to the growing number of newcomer immigrant youth enrolling in SFUSD schools where there is a need to fill the gap and serve this student population, the Fuerte program has three main goals: 1) Improve the mental health literacy of newcomer immigrant youth by educating them about mental health concerns, 2) Determine students that may need help and connect them with the adequate mental health services, and 3) Create a welcoming, diverse, and trauma-informed space for newcomer youth to connect.
Currently, we serve youth from Spanish-speaking, Latin American countries. We have screened 80% of our participants for mental health concerns and of those, 36% of the students needed a referral to mental health services. Students participate in a seven-module Fuerte curriculum, where they learn about mental health literacy and resilience. Participants learn about creating supportive groups, developing emotion regulation skills and coping strategies, connecting to their cultures and their immigration journey, fostering communication, and celebrating growth. Through their participation in the program, students receive support with their identity formation process and adjustment to their new spaces in the United States. We are currently evaluating and assessing the program’s effectiveness, and we plan to expand the program to other groups of newcomer youth from Syria and Yemen as part of our multi-year program. We also plan to extend our services to schools beyond San Francisco County, with the goal of serving schools across California, and eventually all of the United States.
Being a part of this project has allowed me to connect with and serve a population that shares a similar background as mine. Providing mental health services and education to this population is crucial for their academic and personal development, and it is important to have safe spaces where youth can open up and have access to resources that will improve their development in the United States.