Changing Lives

Assistant Professor of Social Work Saltanat Childress was a trained concert pianist in her native Kyrgyzstan. But witnessing how women and children were being treated in a time of turmoil inspired her to make a career change.

“The needs of women and children in my society became quite stark after the breakup of the Soviet Union,” she says. “Families experienced poverty, ethnic conflicts, and a lack of social services necessary for support them during the transition to an independent country.”

Her latest project is to put families in Kyrgyzastan on a path toward preventing and reducing adverse childhood experiences, including maltreatment and domestic violence.

Families in Kyrgyzstan will complete 16-week sessions developing strategies around family processes, such as improving co-parenting and building financial capability and assets. The project is funded by a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and continues through 2027.

Dr. Childress hopes to eventually replicate the program across the world in the name of improving lives beyond her home country.

“We need to develop the implementation pathways to institutionalize these programs at a much larger scale if we are to really move the needle on these issues,” she says.