ABSTRACT
As a country founded by individuals seeking religious and political refuge, the United States has accepted more refugees than any other country (Idelson, 1995). Upon resettlement, most refugees struggle to adjust psychologically, physically, socially, and economically to their new communities. The adjustment of Hmong refugees has been particularly challenging (e.g., Rumbaut, 1989; Yang & Murphy, 1993). We developed the Refugee Well-Being Project at Michigan State University1 to promote the well-being and empowerment of Hmong
refugees. It was rooted in an ecological perspective, focusing on improving the community’s responsiveness to the needs of refugees and emphasizing adaptation as a mutual process by both the refugees and their environments. For a period of 6 months, Hmong adults and undergraduate students participated together in the intervention, which had two major elements: an educational component, which involved cultural exchange, opportunities to address community issues collectively, and one-on-one learning opportunities for Hmong adults, and an advocacy component which involved undergraduates advocating for and transferring advocacy skills to Hmong families to increase their access to resources in their communities. An evaluation with both quantitative and qualitative components revealed that participants’ quality of life, satisfaction with resources, English proficiency, and knowledge for the United States citizenship test increased and their levels of distress decreased over the course of the intervention.
