The Bolivian Street Children (BSC) Project is a residential model for best practices serving street children in La Paz.  Chi Huang, a Boston Medical Center pediatrician, founded it in 1997.  The first home opened in 2001; the organization now is a recognized non-profit with three functioning homes and plans for expansion that include additional residences and a school.

During 2007-2008, further empirical study was needed to document the behavioral and learning trajectories of the boys receiving services of the BSC residential program over time and in the context of the educational and emotional supports provided by their homes.  By simultaneously describing the service delivery system/intervention components of the project, associations between the boy’s progress in the home as well as their vulnerabilities can be more clearly hypothesized. Over the last three years professor Cathy Ayoub had worked with the BSC director of clinical services to develop regular educational and behavioral assessments of the boys to inform their counselors of their strengths, and vulnerabilities.  With the support of a DRCLAS Faculty Individual Research Grant, Professor Catherine C. Ayoub, developed a research proposal taking advantage of demographic, behavioral, and educational data collected since 2003 and augment existing information with a round of behavioral, educational and observational measures administered in the summer of 2007, along with a research assistant and the support of six Harvard students who participated in data collection.

This study will contribute significantly to the children’s future care and serve as the next step in delineating how the BSC model offers a reduction in risk factors in street children and the validation of best practice models. The project results, Career Development Education: Lessons from Bolivia were presented by two students who were in Bolivia in 2007, in March 2008 at the American Educational Research Association Conference in New York.

Participating Harvard faculty: Cathy Ayoub, Research Associate; Associate Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychiatry; Kristin Huang, Graduate School of Education; and Dr. Thomas F. Burke, Harvard Medical School, Director of the Center for Global Health

Collaborators: Chi Huang, Medical Director, Pediatrics Inpatient Service, founder of BSC