A team member, Susana, is featured in her agency newsletter.
Village Staffer Shares New Expertise Locally and Internationally
Just over a year ago, The Village’s Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Irma Seilicovich, approached therapist Susana Fragano, ASW, with a unique opportunity: a chance to participate in an innovative, yearlong postgraduate certificate program featuring a multidisciplinary approach to infant-parent mental health. The program also happened to be housed at the University of Massachusetts. Without hesitation, Susana, who works with parents of children from birth to 18 years and supervises our MSW student interns, made the commitment to spend one weekend a month in Boston. We’re glad she did!
The course attracts professionals from around the country and is led by some of the most respected pioneers in the field of child development. Students gain firsthand experience with the latest research on how to train parents and caregivers to build strong and healthy attachments to the children in their lives—identified as the linchpin in helping children thrive. Susana not only mastered skills that are now enhancing The Village’s services but, as one of the few bilingual clinical social workers in the program, she was invited to accompany faculty member Dr. Alexandra Harrison on her field work to an orphanage in El Salvador. There, Susana co-facilitated workshops for caregivers on building relationships with severely traumatized children, who must contend not only with issues of abandonment but with the effects of poverty and war. In addition to providing much-needed services, Susana returned with new insights that will be invaluable in working with the many Salvadoran families The Village serves.
