Dream a world cultural therapy model : building children’s resilience in the context of collective trauma.

Abstract

Dr. Guzder shared the results of her research on a school-based project that was designed to respond to the collective trauma of a post-slavery society that struggles with high rates of violence. This project started in 2005 in inner city Kingston, Jamaica as a collaboration between the Universities of West Indies and McGill. Dr. Guzder first implemented the Dream a World (DAW) intervention with 30 high-risk children aged 8 to 12. The DAW resilience-promoting intervention addresses academic failure and disruptive behaviors with arts-based and remedial working groups. The success of the pilot project led to three years of Grand Challenges funding to implement the intervention in four additional schools with 100 children. In this presentation, Dr. Guzder also discusses challenges to implementing mental health prevention initiatives.