Although refugees have survived violence, loss, and trauma, they also have great gifts of knowledge, experience, and wisdom to share with others. Sociologist Dr. Jessica Goodkind has spent her career thinking about how to help people form united communities. Over the last 16 years, she has applied that knowledge to create the Refugee Well-being Project to bridge cultural divides locally and beyond.

Jessica Goodkind is a community psychologist and Associate Professor of Sociology and Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico. She is the founder and director of the Refugee Well-being Project, which started in 2000 and brings together university students and newly resettled refugee families. They devote a school year to learning from each other and working together to access needed resources and transform communities to be more welcoming to refugees and more open to the opportunities for connection and learning that refugees bring with them. Jessica has been partnering with refugee, immigrant, and indigenous communities to promote social justice and eliminate mental health and other health disparities since 1993.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx