‘As soon as the kids were here, they were very joyful’
In April, the John T. Gorman Foundation awarded the Boys & Girls Club of Southern Maine a grant to provide afterschool and summer programming for 240 children living temporarily in two hotels in South Portland. The goals of the program are not only to offer a positive space and academic support to students, but also to relieve stress for their entire families, who are coping with past trauma and difficult circumstances as refugees, asylees, and asylum seekers. We recently spoke with Baba Ly, Senior Program Director at the Club, to learn more about the trauma-informed approach they are using to serve them.