Core Concepts in Working with Children and Adolescents from Refugee Backgrounds, 10 May 2024

This essential workshop is designed to put a conceptual and practical framework of understanding around working with children, young people and their families from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds.

You will understand about the link between the traumatic experiences of young refugees, the impact of trauma on learning and behaviour, and the stressors of resettlement and cultural transition.

Engaging with real life examples, you will learn how to work in a trauma informed and culturally safe way that promotes recovery and fosters feelings of trust, safety and control, while minimising the risk of retraumatisation.

You will be encouraged to think about how to apply the concepts to your own workplace or school, and will leave the workshop feeling more confident in utilising your skills and experience with young people who have experienced war, torture, persecution and other types of human rights violations, recover from their experiences and rebuild their lives in Australia.

Content includes:

• Refugee children and forced displacement
• The global refugee situation for children
• Traumatic events commonly experienced by refugee children
• Trauma and the developing brain
• Attachment and refugee children
• Impact of trauma on learning and behaviour
• Resettlement challenges
• Importance of the school support system
• Refugee trauma recovery practice and its practical applications
• Cultural safety
• Engagement and using interpreters
• Trauma triggers and how to minimise their impact
• Setting boundaries
• Vicarious trauma, burnout and self-care

Who should attend?
Essential for anyone working or volunteering with refugee children, young people and their families, such as school staff, school/child counsellors, youth workers, case workers, family support workers and child health nurses.


Our Trainer - Rafik Tanious
Bicultural Practice Specialist/Counsellor/Trainer, STARTTS

Rafik Tanious has worked across the social ecologies of education, mental health and social services with children and young people for the past 30 years both locally and internationally. He has extensive field work experience working with children and adolescents with refugee backgrounds in case work, education and counselling. Rafik has a continuing interest in trauma recovery, anti-racism, and youth identity formation and has developed racial literacy, and racial resilience programs for young people with refugee experiences and produced anti-racism films on Cabramatta for the NSW Premiers department.

Rafik has also been employed as a consultant and trainer with universities in supporting the mental health of international students, developing orientation programs and inter-cultural learning frameworks and facilitating cross cultural parenting programs. He has worked as an adult educator at TAFE NSW in the community services and health faculties and holds post graduate qualifications in counselling, education and film production with an interest in promoting children and young people’s rights, recovery, and facilitating opportunities for young people and children to tell their own stories of survival and healing. Rafik currently works at STARTTS as a school liaison project officer, counsellor and trainer.

Workshop delivery
STARTTS workshops are delivered by trainers experienced in the trauma field. They are interactive and normally include small group discussions via breakout rooms, case studies, self-reflections, videos and other types of activities. This workshop is delivered via Zoom. The Zoom link will be included in the registration confirmation email and the reminder emails.

Certificates and handouts
A PDF of the slides will be emailed to you a day before the event. A certificate of completion will be emailed to you the day after the event.

CPD points – 6 CPD hours
This workshop adheres to the continuing professional development standards of most professional bodies. Please check the CPD policy of your professional body.

Note that there are 5 Early Bird Tickets available for purchase 2 months and earlier before the workshop date.