“Your calling is when your passion meets the world’s needs. But you don’t hear your calling behind thick walls. You need to go to the places where the world needs you – the places of pain and neglect. But do not go to save the people you find there. Go to be saved by them. For in those places, you will find your greatest teachers on life and love and courage.”
At HIAS, Sasha has been leading the development of prevention, mitigation and response programming. She supports content creation, resource dissemination for gender based violence awareness and prevention among forcibly displaced persons during resettlement and integration. With the guidance of team of cultural advisors, several Gender and Culturally Aware Toolkits have been created.
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CARRE- IRC., 2022
In partnership with IRC, Sasha supported Cultural Validation of Standardized Instruments with Dari and Pashto cultural validators for Afghan refugees participating in parenting/caregiver mental health intervention. To learn more about best practices, click here.
The project supports language access and justice in partnership with CARRE- IRC. CARRE- IRC supports practitioners preventing and mitigating the impact of traumatic stress on forcibly displaced children, youth and families.
R.A.I.C.E.S, 2020-2021
Alongside R.A.I.C.E.S, Sasha developed a 14 hour capacity training for resettlement workers, produced operational guidelines and strategy for a United States Refugee Resettlement agency as they expand their mental health and psychosocial capacities promoting healing and social integration among refugees in San Antonio, Texas.
HIAS Mental Health and Psychosocial Support, 2020-present
This humanitarian organization deploys a Community Based Approach to Mental Health and Psychosocial Support.
Domestic MHPSS: Lead content development, technical assistance, thought leadership and monitoring and evaluation for 11 sites as they replicated a MPHSS support group aimed at promoting refugee health and wellbeing among forcibly displaced persons during Covid-19.
International MHPSS: Designed and delivered a robust skill building and capacity training for frontline humanitarian workers delivering life saving mental health and psychosocial support to Venezuelans and other persons of concern throughout Guyana. Many are survivors of gender based violence and/or trafficking and needs for activation of mental health promotion and programs are high.
Healing Conversations, 2020-2021
Through the art of performance and theater, Sasha collaborated with partners to create intragroup healing spaces among refugee transition age youth. Partners include: Migrant Education Program of Multnomah County, Project Untangled and PlayWrite, Inc.
Women for Women International
“Developing Survivor Centered Referral Pathways and Capacity” for Women for Women International. This humanitarian organization supports women survivors to become economically and socially empowered. Sasha is designing protocols, guidance and action plans to support holistic referral pathways and capacity building for the 8 countries that WfWI operates in.
Sasha co-designed a series of qualitative measures, and offered technical support for a DFID funded “learning exercise” for Disability Inclusion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria. She also offered enhanced capacity building on referral pathways in Rwanda for a USAID funded project.
Healing the Heart Center, 2021
At the War Survivors Institute, Sasha supported a team of whole health instructors, in the culmination of a Healing the Heart Center Curriculum for Veteran War Survivors.
Healing Refugees, 2019
Worked in partnership with War Survivors Institute to support refugee survivors with Path to Whole Health healing experiences. Through partnership with WSI, Project Untangled and Lutheran Community Services, she offered community based group healing support for Syrian refugee adults in Portland, Oregon.
Healing Veterans, 2019
Worked in partnership with War Survivors Institute to support healing experiences with Veteran war survivors. Healing the Heart Center uses a whole-health approach to support Veterans in integrating mind-body techniques, healthy movement, diet and living to support integrated health and wellbeing.
War Survivors Institute
"Enhancing Refugee Mental Health Assessment Program" in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration and Centers for Disease Control. With a team at War Survivors Institute, we pilot tested a tiered-mental health screener and process for outbound refugees, built capacity of healthcare providers through training, and disseminated initial findings.