HAITIAN YOUTH AND WHOLENESS
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT HAITI?
WHAT ARE YOUR EXPERIENCES WITH HAITIAN CHILDREN & FAMILIES?
Reflection Activity
HAITIAN ANCESTRAL EPISTEMOLOGY
WHAT IS YOUR ANCESTRAL HISTORY?
HOW DOES IT INFLUENCE YOUR LIFE &
YOUR WORK?
Reflection Activity
1514 – 1804 - 70s – 80s – 90s – 2000s
LÒT BÒ DLO
HAVE YOU IMAGINED YOUR
DESCENDANTS 213 YEARS
FROM NOW?
Reflection Activity
HAITIAN AMERICAN
VS.
AMERICAN HAITIAN
Opportunities
Sacrifice in Transition
Lessen Burden
Balance
Responsibility
Acknowledgment
BOURIK FÈ PITIT POU DÒL POZE
Migration as a Social Wellness
Threat
Repairing Trauma of Transition
Multiple Conflicting Contexts
TRANSITIONAL RECOVERY
HAITIAN AMERICAN
DEMOGRAPHICS
POPULATION REPORTING HAITIAN
ANCESTRY IN 2009
MIGRATION BY ARRIVAL
SOURCE: MPI TABULATION OF DATA FROM THE U.S. CENSUS BUREAU 2012 ACS.
Haitian households tend to be larger, family households.
3.7 people compared with 2.6 people for total population
Approximately 59% of Haitians are foreign-born.
81% speak a language other than English at home.
Higher rates of Haitians in the labor market, yet lower earnings
Median earnings for full-time, year round Haitian male
workers was $12,000 less than the total population and
$7,000 less for females
CHARACTERISTICS
OF HAITIANS IN THE US
Median Haitian family income is lower
$46,000 compared to $61,000 for the total population
1 in 5 Haitians live in poverty (20%) compared with 1 in 7 n
the total population (14%)
Homeownership is lower for Haitian households
47% owner-occupied compared with 66% of total U.S.
households
CHARACTERISTICS
OF HAITIANS IN THE US (CONTINUED)
Haitian Women --- 27.4%
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHhngXU8Zw4
Haitian Men 28.4%
African Americans 19% (RACE)
http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2013/01/new-study-black-
students-who-are-taught-racial-pride-do-better-in-school/
Overall U.S. 30%
EDUCATION ATTAINMENT -BA
HOME
CHURCH COMMUNIT
LAKOU
EDIKASYON Y
SCHOOL
THE LAKOU CONCEPT
HAITIAN EDUCATION MODEL
Home
Community
Church
School
CONFLICTED & CONTRADICTORY
KNOWLEDGE
INTEGRATED FRAGMENTED
HOME Home
CHURCH Church
LAKOU EDIKASYON COMMUNITY
LAKOU
Education Community
SCHOOL School
FRAGMENTING A SUCCESSFUL
HAITIAN CULTURAL EDUCATION
MODEL
ACADEMIC SPACES OF BUILDING
WHOLENESS
HAITIAN
EPISTEMOLOGY HISTORY OF PROGRAM
L.I.F.E. and H.E.L.P. began
as art-based literacy programs
funded by Children’s Trust
whose aim was using diverse
methods to learn and provide
academic tools to Haitian
high school and middle
school students in Miami who
are under-achieving
PROGRAM FOR HAITIAN YOUTH
The mission of the Literacy Initiative for
Empowerment Program (L.I.F.E.) and Haitian
Empowerment Literacy Project (H.E.L.P.) is to
provide a quality art-based program that would
empower youth in the Miami-Dade community to
make positive life choices, develop socio-cultural
awareness, and to build literacy skills that will enable
them to maximize their personal, interpersonal, and
community potential.
THE MISSION OF THE PROGRAM
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
ACADEMIC
CULTURAL
PHYSICAL FITNESS
PSYCHO-SOCIAL SKILL DEVELOPMENT
SPIRITUAL
Gede - Life and Death -Self
Marasa – Duality –Self
Ezili – Love – Interpersonal
Simbi – Healing - Interpersonal
Legba – Crossroads - Community
Jeni – Individual Alignment - Community
Azaka – New Growth/Beginnings = Community
HAITIAN PRINCIPLES GUIDING
EDUCATION FOR MY PROGRAM
Year 1 - Manifestation of God’s Love
Year 2 – Decolonizing the Imagination
Year 3 – Dream Actualized
Year 4 – Spiritual Consciousness Connects us to a Divine
Mind
Year 5 – The Roots are Deep
Year 6 - The School is the Church and the Church is the
School
Year 7 – Beyond Liberation
PROGRAM THEMES
Visual
Audio
Oral
Written
Reflection
Sharing
LEARNING TRIANGULATION
How do we support a strong academic identity of
Haitian youth as they navigate and master a
conflicting and contradictory academic and social
context of school?
SOCIAL STUDIES
AND
HAITIAN YOUTH
Student Riots for Civic Change in Haiti
Haiti in Global Context
Migration Patterns of Haitian in the Diaspora
Using Census Data to create Social Portrait of Haitians
Historical Relationship with Bolivia, Venezuela, US
Haitian Revolution as a lens for Black Consciousness in the
Americas
http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2013/01/new-study-black-
students-who-are-taught-racial-pride-do-better-in-school/
AREAS OF SOCIAL CRITICAL INVESTIGATION
&
PROPOSED STUDENT ACTIVITIES
DR. CHARLENE DESIR
NSU
TEN, GLOBAL
[email protected] REFERENCES
• Bibb, A., & Casimir, G. J. (1996). Haitian families. Ethnicity and family therapy (2nd ed.) (pp. 97-111). New York, NY, US: Guilford Press, New
York, NY.
• De Santis, L., & Ugarriza, D. N. (1995). Potential for intergenerational conflict in cuban and haitian immigrant families. Archives of Psychiatric
Nursing, 9(6), 354-364. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.fiu.edu/10.1016/S0883-9417(95)80059-X
• Ferguson, G. & Desir, C. (2014). Ayiti Cheri: Cultural Orientation of Early Adolescents in Rural Haiti. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 34, (5),
620-636.
• Desir, C. (2011). (Invited) Diasporic Lakou: A Haitian Academic Explores her Path to Haiti Pre and Post Earthquake. Harvard Educational Review,
82 (2), 278-295
• Desir, C. (2008). Understanding the Sending Context of Haitian Immigrant Students. Journal of Haitian Studies, 13 (2), 73-93.
• Desrosiers, A., & St. Fleurose, S. (2002). Treating haitian patients: Key cultural aspects. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 56(4), 508-521.
• Doucet, F. (2011). (Re)constructing home and school: Immigrant parents, agency, and the (un)desirability of bridging multiple worlds. Teachers
College Record, 113(12), 2705-2738.
• Doucet, F. (2011). Parent involvement as ritualized practice. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 42(4), 404-421.
doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.fiu.edu/10.1111/j.1548-1492.2011.01148.x
• Felix, K. (2007). An examination of the relationship between family-of-origin health and marital satisfaction in protestant haitian american couples
Available from PsycINFO. (622034217; 2007-99200-519).
• Francois, A. J. (Mar 1998). A manual of counseling and psychotherapy for minority immigrants of haitian descent Available from PsycINFO.
(619374061; 1998-95006-374).
• Giles, H. C. (Feb 1992). The development of an instrument to assess the functioning of haitian immigrant families Available from PsycINFO.
(618194513; 1992-76157-001).
• Gopaul-McNicol, S., Benjamin-Dartigue, D., & Francois, E. (1998). Working with haitian canadian families. International Journal for the
Advancement of Counselling, 20(3), 231-242. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.fiu.edu/10.1023/A:1005368204341
• Hall, P. & Batchelor, L. (2015). Psychological Well-Being and Personality of Haitian-American Adults. American Psychological Association
Conference. August.
• Jackson-Smith, P. D. (2008). The role of resiliency in the journey from welfare to self-sufficiency for former welfare recipients: A quantitative study
Available from PsycINFO. (621717339; 2008-99030-549).
• James, R., Sr. (2007). Jamaican migration theory: Shift in family dynamics in jamaican families that migrate from jamaica to the united states
Available from PsycINFO. (622006340; 2007-99002-195).
• Jean, C. (May 2003). Parent education training for haitian parents: A program design Available from PsycINFO. (620239599; 2003-95010-267).
Johnson, M. E. (2010). An examination of the mediating effects of psychosociocultural factors, and neighborhood
characteristics on depression symptomatology: A comparison of afro-caribbeans and african americans Available
from PsycINFO. (822366903; 2010-99210-505).
Lee, M. K. (2008). Temporal changes in immigration stress, adaptation, and the factors contributing to the
immigration-adaptation process in newly immigrant parents Available from PsycINFO. (621720516; 2008-99040-
382).
Menos, J. (2005). Haitian families. New York, NY, US: Guilford Press, New York, NY.
Michel, J. (2004). Identity development of young women from haitian immigrant families in the united states: A
qualitative exploratory study Available from PsycINFO. (620624207; 2004-99006-252).
Nicholas, T., Stepick, A., & Stepick, C. D. (2008). "Here's your diploma, mom!" family obligation and multiple
pathways to success. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 620(1), 237-252.
doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.fiu.edu/10.1177/0002716208322781
Nicolas, G., Desilva, A., Prater, K., & Bronkoski, E. (2009). Empathic family stress as a sign of family
connectedness in haitian immigrants. Family Process, 48(1), 135-150.
doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.fiu.edu/10.1111/j.1545-5300.2009.01272.x
Nicolas, G., DeSilva, A., & Rabenstein, K. (2009). Educational attainment of haitian immigrants. Urban Education,
44(6), 664-686. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.fiu.edu/10.1177/0042085908322704
US Census American Community Survey 2009
US Census American Community Survey 2012
REFERENCES (CON’T)
