Transforming the Health & Wellbeing of Those Who Need It the Most

The International Community Health Services Seattle World School Teen Health Center is celebrating a decade of service to the students in our community who need it the most -- newly arrived young people from all over the world.

Because of the Teen Health Center, middle and high school age immigrant and refugee students have had access to high quality primary health services, dental care, mental health services, immunizations and preventive care. The Health Center has also been instrumental in connecting students’ families with the school and with community resources, helping to improve student and family outcomes overall.

The Beginning: Seattle Public Schools Launches Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center

This region has a history of welcoming thousands of new immigrants and refugees, many of whom have been middle and high school age students who arrive in Seattle from all over the world, often with enormously challenging language, health, and education needs.

To serve these young people effectively and prepare them to enter Seattle’s middle and high schools, Seattle Public Schools launched the Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center (SBOC) in 1980. The students learned English and academic skills to help prepare them to transition to a local school.

While the SBOC represented a giant step forward in enabling students to succeed in school and in life, it was not enough. It was clear that these students needed more than just a transition step to learn to navigate their lives in a new country and culture.

Establishing a Seattle High School for Immigrants & Refugees: A New Model

In 2009, SBOC relocated from Queen Anne to Meany Middle School on Capitol Hill. At that time, Seattle Public Schools and Friends of SBOC engaged many community leaders and organizations to collaboratively design a new model for an innovative high school that would replace the orientation center.

The premise: This new school would be a model designed with a full-service approach that included tailored instruction, with cultural competence at its core, wrap around services, and community connections to be responsive to diverse student and family needs, beliefs, values and experiences.

Students continued to arrive from all over the world and many had missed years of formal education. Ninety percent of these students lived at or below the poverty line. A high percentage came from war-torn countries or suffered from other childhood trauma. Many had never seen a health provider, were unvaccinated, uninsured, and their families had no idea even how to make an appointment with a healthcare provider. Not surprisingly, some of the most evident health and education disparities were, and are still, found with these students.

All these students and families speak another language. In fact, more than 30 different languages are represented. Few speak English. Most need interpreters to help communicate until they become English proficient.