Strengthening Families Across Contexts: Multidirectional Learning (2024-2025)
This project team sought to address global mental health inequalities through the development, adaptation and evaluation of family-based interventions in Kenya and the United States. Building on previous work, the team advanced two related interventions: Tuko Pamoja, a family strengthening program in Eldoret, Kenya, and Caminando Juntos, an adaptation of Coping Together designed for Latinx immigrant families in the U.S. Each intervention is at a different stage of development, providing students with the opportunity to engage in community-based research, intervention design and evaluation.
Over the course of the year, students working on Tuko Pamoja conducted qualitative and quantitative analyses of lay counselor intervention delivery to understand mechanisms of support provided. At the same time, the Caminando Juntos subteam prepared for its first implementation in summer 2025 by translating intervention manuals, producing animated videos for families and refining pre- and post-assessment surveys.
Through these efforts, team members gained direct training in the core elements of family prevention intervention, fundamentals of community-engaged research and overview of the intervention design process. Furthermore, the team learned the fundamentals of quantitative and qualitative analysis, clinical assessment administration/survey enumeration and other critical skills required for culturally tailored intervention adaptation and evaluation.
Timing
Summer 2024 – Spring 2025
Team Outputs
Strengthening Families Across Contexts: Multidirectional Learning (Poster presentation at the Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Showcase, April 16, 2025)
Preparation for intervention implementation for summer 2025
This Team in the News
Global Health Research on Display at Bass Connections Showcase (Global Health Institute, April 22, 2025)
See earlier related team, Coping Together: Reducing Mental Health Disparities for Latinx Families (2022-2023).
Image: Latino Read 915, by US Department of Education, licensed under CC BY 2.0