C.H.A.R.J. TEAM Projects

On November 15th, 2025, the Community, Healing, Action Research, & Justice (CHARJ) team, led by Dr. Rachael Goodman, gathered in Norfolk, Virginia, for the annual Virginia Counselors Association conference. Pictured from left to right are Brenda Gonzalez, master’s student in counseling; Leonela Jabbour Yammine, student at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology; Chen Chen, master’s student in counseling; Alejandra Salazar Salame, MSEd, PhD student in education; Maribel Tohara Nakamatsu, MEd, PhD in education; Rachael D. Goodman, PhD, LPC, associate professor of counseling; Jennifer Aguilar, master’s student in counseling; Grace Harrell, master’s student in counseling; and Dorothy Li, master’s student in Counseling. 

This year, the team gave two presentations on a project developed in partnership with Amigas de la Comunidad, a community led organization that serves Central American immigrant families in the Arlington/Alexandria area. The team worked alongside immigrant mothers to design and facilitate pilot parenting and wellness support group sessions, named Padres Ayudando a Padres: Construyendo Familias Fuertes (Parents Helping Parents: Building Strong Families), that helped identify and address stress and challenges with parenting following the COVID 19 pandemic, as well as structural oppression and challenges navigating U.S. systems. This work has been part of a long-term community based participatory research action research collaborative that was started in 2014.