APPLIED RESEARCH EXPERIENCES

Designing for Healing and Well-Being: Refugee Children's Vision for Trauma-Informed Housing and Resilient Environments

Abstract

The U.S. has resettled over 2.6 million refugees since 1975, yet its resettlement models often overlook refugee children’s well-being. Trauma-informed design (TID), widely applied in healthcare and homeless housing, remains underexplored in refugee housing. This study examines Zomi refugee children’s (ages 6–17) experiences in Tulsa, Oklahoma, using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory and SAMHSA’s trauma-informed principles. Findings reveal issues like overcrowding, inadequate light, and a lack of child-friendly spaces. The study advocates for child-centered, trauma-informed housing, aligning with SDG 11 and Healthy People 2030, to inform policies that foster resilience, well-being, and belonging in refugee communities.

Design Workshop

Photo-Elicitation

Little Architects

Investigating the resilience of refugee camps to COVID-19: A case of Rohingya settlements in Bangladesh.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmh.2021.100052

Highlights

The psychological stress and past trauma of refugees often force them to misunderstand the severity of COVID-19.
The attempts of health care providers and aid agencies in the Rohingya refugee camps are limited to follow international/national guidelines to protect against the COVID-19 outbreak.
The roles of local mediators to integrate the healthcare policies and the voices of the refugees are crucial to tackling COVID-19.

Fig.1. The proposed conceptual framework for community resilience to COVID-19. (Source: Authors, 2020).

The framework builds on five interrelated dimensions of refugee living: spatio-physical, socioeconomic resources/infrastructure community competence/human resources, information and communication, and institutional capacity (risk governance) influenced by both intuitional polices and community responses. These dimensions also represent a complex and intertwined relationship between the host and refugee communities; however, are mostly governed by the local institutions

Fig. 2. Interrelation among Rohingya and all stake- holders during COVID-19.

Fig. 3. A) Crammed shelters; B) Water scarcity resulted form limited water points .(Source: Fieldwork, 2020).

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