“IT SOMETIMES HEALS, BUT IT SOMETIMES HURTS”. EXPLORING THE ISSUES FACING FIRST-GENERATION AND IMMIGRANT STAFF CARING FOR IMMIGRANT YOUTH IN AN AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM

Coming from countries across the world, immigrants have chosen to start a new life in the United States, and become part of the fabric that makes up American society. Today, immigrant children face a unique set of challenges and hardships including trauma, acculturative stress, and poverty. Helping to support their needs is a diverse workforce of helping professionals, providing support in a variety of settings. After-school programming has been utilized as a successful approach to supporting immigrant children, and by extension their families and communities. It is unique for children in after-school programs to be supported by staff that share similar lived experiences and ethnic backgrounds. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the issues facing first-generation and immigrant staff caring for immigrant youth in a supportive after-school program. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 8 participants via Zoom to facilitate in-depth descriptions of their perspectives. Six participants were interviewed twice over a period of six weeks to explore their experiences and perspectives across a time span during the Covid-19 pandemic. Two participants were interviewed once due to scheduling conflicts. The Pragmatic Qualitative Data Analysis (PQDA) method was utilized to analyze data from the interviews and observational field memos. A total of three major themes emerged from the data that included: (a) Emotional Labor, (b) Identity Development, and (e) Covid-19 Pandemic Impacts. This research found that there was a relationship between the central themes of emotional labor, Covid-19, and identity development. Participants’ experience of emotional labor created the unique space for employees to create and reinforce their own cultural identity, while being open and supportive to the various cultural identities. This sense of support from colleagues added a mediator which helped participants to cope with the stress of emotional labor and the Covid-19 pandemic. Other implications for counselors, organizations, policy and future research investigations are explored.