iBelong
The Issue
Every decade brings a new set of challenges for American Muslim youth. Our responsibility is to meet their needs by understanding the strengths and challenges of growing up Muslim in America. In order to make a difference, we must center their voices and ensure their sense of belonging and ownership within our Muslim communities and mosques. iBelong is a three-year national pilot intervention aiming to increase American Muslim belonging in their mosques. We invite you to explore this page and follow along with our progress!Â
Project Overview
Utilizing the Positive Youth Development (PVD) sciences, the iBelong project includes three overarching phases to be carried out over three years (January 2021 – December 2023).Â
The iBelong project will complete a needs assessment in six representative communities across the nation, develop and host interactive workshops at each community, and create content to disseminate findings and recommendations to different audiences.Â
Phase 1: Needs Assessment
The first phase of the project focuses on collecting data and identifying current opportunities and barriers to belonging in the masjid by engaging all stakeholders about their experiences. The estimated total sample size of this phase is 400 participants.
Phase 2: Intervention
The second phase of the project aims to provide adolescents and adults with youth empowerment skills to facilitate positive connections between adolescents and adults. The intervention will be in the format of three workshops presented in person to the communities over two days. A component of the workshops will also present the findings from the national survey to our community partners.Â
Phase 3: Dissemination
The final phase of the project will focus on creating and disseminating findings from the project in a manner easily interpretable by the intended audience. Various formats of the findings will be created for the project’s diverse range of stakeholders: youth, parents, mosque leadership, the broader Muslim community, the Muslim academic community, and the broader scientific community.Â
Download our iBelong flyer!
Meet the team
Hanan Hashem, Ph.D
Project Lead
Sameera Ahmed, Ph.D Research Supervisor
Sumbal Raza
Community Liason
Mahmood Hai, M.D.
Project Advisor
Wafaa Ateyah
Project Manager
Feedback
Your feedback is incredibly valuable to us. It helps us refine and improve our efforts to better serve you. Whether it’s positive comments that motivate us or constructive criticism that guides our enhancements, your insights are an essential part of our journey. We genuinely appreciate your time and input as we work to provide the best possible experience. Thank you for being a part of our process!
Testimonials
The iBelong project is very much needed and long overdue for the American Muslim community to understand the problems and find clear solutions to increasing youth participation and engagement in our mosques. The Family and Youth Institute has the research specialization and has just the right team in place to make this project a national success. I am excited to follow the progress of the six partner mosques being studied and identify what solutions can be utilized by youth directors and mosques across the country.”
Partners
