Box 19162
Arlington, TX 76019-0162
When the former Soviet Union fell, Assistant Professor Saltanat Childress had to forge a new career path. Inspired by the need she saw in her native Kyrgyzstan for more social work services, she dedicated herself to developing programs to help reduce child maltreatment and domestic violence in families around the world.
Saltanat Childress
on helping families heal in her homeland and beyond
My decision to pursue social work is rooted in my personal experiences growing up as an indigenous Kyrgyz woman in the period when the Soviet Union was dissolving and in the aftermath of that shock.
It was the early 1990s and Dr. Childress, a native of Kyrgyzstan, was witnessing the end of the world as she knew it—along with all her plans for the future.
Originally, I had trained to become a concert pianist under the Soviet system and had completed a conservatory degree. I was starting a performance career. But as the Soviet Union fell apart, that path was shut down.
That’s when she noticed how families were being damaged in the wake of these massive geopolitical changes. She started to take on social development projects in her home country and in neighboring Tajikistan and Kazakhstan.
I saw firsthand a lot of family problems and the acute needs of women and children when they are experiencing economic deprivation, family dysfunction, and violence in the home. The guiding thematic aspiration that has propelled my career in social work is a desire to contribute to the well-being of families globally—but particularly in Central Asia and among immigrant communities in the U.S.—with a focus on vulnerable women and children.
She faces many challenges in her efforts to advocate for social work in Kyrgyzstan, including the lack of awareness of the aims of social work and its services and the cultural taboo about discussing family problems such as domestic violence.
Trying to help launch social work in a newly independent country is difficult. I’m part of a small group there attempting to develop social work as a profession—one with standards of education and practice, sources of funding, and a research side that is still very much under construction. Helping to develop a professional social work association, for example, has been a rewarding but also challenging endeavor.
Some of her recent work focuses on improving the lives of families in Kyrgyzstan by preventing and reducing adverse childhood experiences, including maltreatment and domestic violence, through a school-based approach featuring skill-building sessions and supervised family activities. Childress hopes to bring similar programs to the United States.
Family violence and child maltreatment are present in every culture and country around the world, regardless of income level, ethnicity, or social group, and they are often hiding in plain sight. 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.
This goal is clear in the work she’s doing here in the U.S., where she’s focused on understanding the experiences of immigrants and refugees from the Middle East/North Africa and former Soviet Union countries—both the challenges they are facing and their hopes for a better future.
My research was driven by the expressed needs and concerns of community and service providers. There was a strong anecdotal and community-based recognition of the challenges faced by immigrants, particularly around family conflicts and adaptation processes.
Ultimately, she wants her work to leave a lasting legacy for families everywhere.
I want my research to contribute to social change by fostering policies, programs, and attitudes that empower women, promote better family dynamics, and lead to more resilient family formations.