The Center for Excellence in Immigrant Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (CEIIECMH) is an interdisciplinary program within the Division of Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics at the Department of Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center. The Center’s mission is to improve access to racially and socially equitable developmentally-, trauma-, and diversity-informed infant and early childhood mental health (IEMCH) services for pregnant individuals and children ages zero to five in undocumented and mixed-status immigrant families. The Center has a triple-aim approach: - **Workforce support and development**: Promoting practice change in the IECMH workforce through specialized training, consultation, diversity-informed reflective practice, technical assistance, and individualized support to frontline providers and organizations serving immigrant children and families. - **Systems change**: Serving as a catalyst for transforming systems through advocacy, research, raising public awareness, innovating systems delivery, and cross-sector collaborations and interdisciplinary partnerships. - **Direct services**: In strategic planning phase - coming soon ## Signature Trainings and Areas of Expertise We offer two signature trainings, as well as specialized trainings tailored to your needs. All the CEIIECMH offerings can be provided in English and Spanish at the present time. ### Immigration Trauma and Serving Young Children in Mixed-Status and Undocumented Immigrant Families Our comprehensive training offers infant and early childhood providers foundational knowledge and practical tools for identifying and uplifting the sources of strength within undocumented and mixed-status immigrant families while supporting them in addressing the impact of immigration policies and other sources of stress and secondary adversities on these families. Participants examine the historical and socio-political context of immigration, the traumatic impact of family separation threats and actual separations, and their effects on child development. Our signature training focuses on creating sanctuaries—healing-centered physical and emotional spaces across diverse settings including childcare centers, home visiting programs, early intervention services, pediatric practices, and community mental health organizations. Providers learn to implement the BMC/CEIIECMH family preparedness plan, an essential tool that supports immigrant families facing potential separation. Using trauma-informed, linguistically and socio-culturally responsive, and developmentally appropriate approaches that center racial equity, participants develop skills to build sanctuary practices and guide families through legal considerations for caregiver selection, communication with children, and preservation of family information. Participants cultivate competencies in critical self-reflection, healing-centered care, and developmentally informed tools that enhance safety, support affect regulation, and identify and build power within both immigrant families and the providers serving them. The training additionally addresses how the intersection of provider identity, positionality, organizational and systemic inequities relate to primary and secondary traumatic stress in the workforce, offering protective measures grounded in liberatory and antiracist frameworks. These approaches operate at both organizational and individual levels to advance workforce well-being and sustainable practice transformation. ### Training and Consultation Modalities - **Introduction training:** Minimum 1.5 hours recommended - **Full day or multi-day trainings:** Vary in length and depth - **Communities of practice / learning collaboratives:** Six to 12 months of didactic/learning sessions interspersed with reflective group consultation. Focus on group learning, mutual peer support, sharing resources, skills practice, and practice change. ### Diversity-Informed Healing-Centered Reflective Supervision, Consultation, and Practice Our comprehensive training in this area will increase participants' understanding of reflective supervision, consultation, and practice (RSC) as a means to promote diversity-informed practice. The workshop will define and differentiate the secondary effects of the work, such as secondary traumatic stress, vicarious trauma, and burnout from an intersectional lens, and explore the relationship between self-awareness, critical self-reflection, and diversity-informed reflective supervision, consultation, and practice. Diversity-informed reflective supervision and practice and radical healing are offered as healing-centered frameworks and strategies to promote self-transformation, practice transformation, and increase buffers against the effects of the work. This training will utilize a combination of didactic and interactive modalities, including case-based learning, to integrate theory into practice. It is offered in different modalities according to the needs and resources of organizations, teams and individuals: ### Training and Consultation Modalities - **Introduction training:** Minimum 1.5 hours recommended - **Communities of practice / learning collaboratives:** Six to 12 months of didactic/learning sessions interspersed with reflective group consultation. Focus on group learning, mutual peer support, sharing resources, skills practice, and practice change. - **Group diversity-informed, healing-centered RSC:** For practitioners, program leaders, supervisors - **Individual diversity-informed, healing-centered RSC:** For practitioners, program leaders, supervisors ### Areas of Expertise for Specialized Trainings Beyond our two signature trainings, our team can tailor training content for your professional development needs. Our areas of expertise include: **Core Concepts** - Family preparedness planning - Understanding interlocking systems of oppression and their impact in systems, families, and the workforce - Immigration, trauma, and loss **Working with Families** - Development, attachment, trauma, and loss: socio-cultural and linguistic considerations in the assessment and treatment of young children in Latin American immigrant families - Serving undocumented and mixed-status children and families - Serving Latin American children and families **Workforce Support** - Diversity- and trauma-informed approaches for IECMH providers working with immigrant pregnant individuals and families with children ages zero to five - Diversity-informed, healing-centered reflective practice and supervision, including training and workforce preservation, healing, and mitigating secondary traumatic stress (STS) - Addressing trauma, bilingualism, and linguicism in the early childhood workforce serving children ages zero to five in Spanish-speaking families ## Resources for Providers ### Radical Healing for Providers Serving Immigrant Families This article offers an introduction to the creation and implementation of a workforce development project for frontline providers serving mixed-status immigrant families in infant and early childhood programs. The project comprised specialized training and an innovative approach to reflective consultation to provide an in-depth exploration grounded in diversity-informed practice and radical healing principles. This reflective consultation approach was conceptualized as a key tool to facilitate providers’ competencies development, support their critical thinking and reflective capacity, buffer them from the secondary effects of the work, and ultimately serve as a catalyst for practice transformation and their own liberation. *To cite this article:* Noroña, C., Raskin, E., Fernandez-Pastrana, I., Anderson-Phou, S., & Saulnier, M. (2023). Diversity-informed reflective consultation and radical healing: A new paradigm for infant and early childhood mental health providers serving immigrant families. Zero to Three, 43(3), 33-54. [Read Diversity-Informed Reflective Consultation and Radical Healing](https://www.zerotothree.org/resource/journal/diversity-informed-reflective-consultation-and-radical-healing-a-new-paradigm-for-infant-and-early-childhood-mental-health-providers-serving-immigrant-families/) ### Family Preparedness Plan and Facilitator Guide The family preparedness plan (FPP) is a resource for parents/caregivers to address concerns and mitigate stress related to family separation. The FPP is not a clinical/mental health/educational assessment or evaluation tool. It is a document where families list essential information about their family and children in case of sudden parent/caregiver absence, such as detention or deportation. Due to the nature of this document, we encourage providers to use these materials in a sensitive way. We also have created a facilitator’s guide, which provides valuable information on how to assist providers and families in completing the FPP. The FPP is available in English and Spanish. *To cite this tool:* Fernández-Pastrana, I., Noroña, C.R., & Hurvitz, K. (2017). Family Preparedness Plan. Boston Medical Center. [Family Preparedness Plan](https://www.bmc.org/sites/default/files/Programs___Services/Programs_for_Adults/center-family-navigation-community-health-promotion/1-Family-Preparedness-Plan.pdf) [Plan de Preparación Familiar](https://www.bmc.org/sites/default/files/Programs___Services/Programs_for_Adults/center-family-navigation-community-health-promotion/Family-Preparedness-Plan-Spanish.pdf) [Family Preparedness Plan Facilitator’s Guide](https://www.bmc.org/sites/default/files/Programs___Services/Programs_for_Adults/center-family-navigation-community-health-promotion/2-FPP-Facilitator-Guide.pdf) ## Our Team The Center is staffed by a diverse interdisciplinary team. [**Carmen Rosa Noroña, LICSW, Ms. Ed., CEIS, IEMCH-E®**](/about-us/directory/doctor/carmen-rosa-norona-msed-licsw-iecmh-e) Principal Investigator **Ivys Fernández-Pastrana, JD** Project Manager **Desiree Hartman, MSW** Senior Training and Learning Specialist [**Genevieve L. Preer, MD**](/about-us/directory/doctor/genevieve-l-preer-md) Medical Partner, BMC Pediatrics [**Marilyn C. Augustyn, MD, FAAP**](/about-us/directory/doctor/marilyn-c-augustyn-md) Director, BMC Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics