Safety, stability, and connection: Facilitator perspectives from a youth peer support group for immigrant survivors of trauma and trafficking in Baltimore.

Abstract

Immigrant youth who have survived trauma and trafficking face ongoing structural and relational stressors that shape recovery. This qualitative study examined facilitator perspectives of psychosocial support groups within Steps to Success (S2S), a culturally responsive, trauma-informed peer support program serving Spanish-speaking immigrant youth and young adults (ages 15-25) in Baltimore. Guided by trauma-informed care principles and group process theory, facilitator summaries (N = 30) were analyzed using thematic analysis. Three themes were identified: (a) layered emotional experiences, (b) connection as a dynamic process, and (c) skill-building as a support for regulation and collective meaning-making. Peer groups functioned as stabilizing environments where vulnerability, trust, and protective strategies were revisited and reshaped over time. Facilitators described youth expanding their capacity to hold multiple emotional states in shared space through cycles of tension, rupture, and repair, with skill-building activities that engaged sensory, emotional, cognitive, and relational dimensions of healing. The findings underscore recovery as nonlinear, marked by fluctuations in emotional safety, guardedness, relational strain, and renewed engagement rather than sequential improvement.