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Objectives: This pilot participatory action research (PAR) is aimed at increasing educational opportunities for refugee youth by demystifying higher education and providing relevant information. The project also aims to develop empirical knowledge regarding refugee youth's life trajectories and barriers to higher education, which informs collective action to enhance educational policies and programs for refugee youth. Method: In collaboration with community and student organizations in a midwestern urban area of the United States, we organized a higher education pathway program for Congolese refugee youth and community leaders aspiring to pursue higher education. Seven individuals attended a 1-day program, with a workshop, campus tour, and meeting with university administrators, and participated, along with two others, in a life history calendar interview. This article analyzes the PAR processes and interviews with participants. Results: In addition to individual-level factors such as limited knowledge about college, various structural-level factors (i.e., school policies, procedures) impede education of refugee youth. Our analysis highlights the community as a source of both support and responsibility for refugee youth. Results show the need to educate the community about higher education but also the need to educate the university about refugee education and the community's pivotal role in doing so. Conclusions: Our findings offer a three-level (individual, structural, and community) framework of education pathways for resettled refugees. A critical analysis of how factors at multiple levels interact and produce unique challenges and possibilities furthers the field of refugee studies and also informs more holistic, sustainable policies and programs for refugee education. Public Significance StatementThis study suggests that the refugee community is central in facilitating higher education pathways for refugee youth, by mediating between individual-and structural-level barriers. In addition, the study finds that the community is not only a source of support but also responsibility for refugee youth. The study also calls for increasing awareness for both refugee communities and universities / higher education institutions about college education success of refugee youth.

In the past few decades, both the local and international press have addressed flaws within the juvenile justice systems in Chile. However, very few studies have examined the support provided to social workers working in this field. This article, using exploratory survey research methods, explores the perspective of social workers about how these systems support their well-being and overall work functioning. The survey uses a snowball sampling technique to reach social workers who work in nonprofit organizations serving juvenile offenders in the metropolitan region in Chile. The results show that social workers are experiencing moderate levels of compassion fatigue. Different issues emerged centered on a lack of organizational support related to teamwork, training, and pay.

The pilot study measures compassion fatigue experienced by social workers in the United States and Chile who work in public child welfare and juvenile justice systems. While public child welfare systems differ in legislative and organizational structures in these two countries, the study uncovers what types of compassion fatigue participants experienced and what they saw as supports and organizational practices that increase or decrease levels of compassion fatigue. Qualtrics survey tools were used to deliver an online survey to potential participants in both countries with two instruments: the Professional Quality of Life Scale V version and the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale. The survey also asked open-ended questions for participants to identify supports received from their work sites that address compassion fatigue and challenges in their work environments. Workers in both countries have similar challenges and needs related to addressing compassion fatigue and hazards. The overall compassion fatigue reported by participants in both countries was relatively high and not directly linked to the perceived level of organizational supports in their work settings. One area of difference is that participants in the U.S. experienced significantly more compassion satisfaction than did the participants from Chile. There also was a significant difference in the responses from participants in Chile related to experiencing more secondary traumatic stress than U.S. participants. This study is the first step in working to determine best practices when addressing compassion fatigue and the hazards of working in high demand public child-serving systems. Further research is necessary to further study compassion fatigue among social workers in child welfare systems in both countries.