Chelsea’s Child Wellbeing Initiative: A District-Community-University Partnership
Chelsea’s Child Wellbeing Initiative: A District-Community-University Partnership
Project Summary
A tight knit, vibrant community serving primarily recent immigrants and their children, Chelsea has long relied on its institutions, social service agencies and non-profit organizations. Finding new ways to collaborate in the face of the crisis, the school district has led an effort to establish a Children’s Cabinet made up of leaders from across the community to identify needs and coordinate support for child wellbeing. As the research partner for the Children’s Cabinet, the Boston College team has worked with members of the Children’s Cabinet, alongside district and research partners in an evidence-based, collaborative process to define and document child wellbeing in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Approach
Throughout the project, we will focus on how the policies and practices across sectors support or hinder the wellbeing of Chelsea’s youth given the disruption to education, health, and mental health caused by the pandemic. Centering equity and bringing educational, public health, social services and community leaders together alongside an interdisciplinary team of Boston College researchers, we are poised to envision and enact bold, evidence-based and context-specific initiatives to support the wellbeing of Chelsea’s youth.
Measurement & Metrics
Documenting our process of establishing and developing the Children's Cabinet, Interviews with cabinet and community members.