Strengths-based Programming:
The Example of Somali Refugee Youth

Although the above quote from a Somali leader in the Minneapolis area refers specifically to Somali refugee youth, these comments reflect the challenges experienced by many refugee youth as they adjust to life in the U.S. today.  To provide an in-depth look at how strengths-based programming can address such challenges for refugee youth, this Spotlight article focuses on the example of Somali refugees.  Challenges and strengths shared by Somali youth are highlighted, together with current examples of strengths-based programs for Somali youth from across the country.  Relevant research and resources are available in the recent BRYCS publication Positive Youth Development and Somali Youth: Research and Resources. To see any of the past Spotlights or lists of highlighted resources by topic, please visit the archive.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Congratulations to everyone for a successful World Refugee Day!  Events were held throughout the country in places such as Chicago, the Twin Cities, Florida, Utah, and many more. 



• The Journal of Public Child Welfare is calling for papers that address the experiences and needs of immigrant children and families involved in the child welfare system.  Also of interest to the journal are topics such as promising practices; the child welfare response to worksite enforcement raids; cultural competence training; analysis of multi-system approaches or transnational collaborations; and analysis of the impact of state and/or federal policies on child welfare for immigrant children. The deadline is September 1st.



• The BRIDGE (Building Refugee and Immigrant Degrees for Graduate Education) Program at Boston University’s School of Social Work will soon be accepting applications.  The BRIDGE program is for refugees and immigrants who are interested in studying social work with the goal of increasing the number of professionally trained social workers who are culturally and linguistically competent to work with newcomer populations.  Applications will be accepted from August 1 to November 2.  

EVENTS

• The Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners Conference (CREATE) announced that registration is now open for the 2009 CREATE Conference on October 5-6 in Austin, Texas.  This year’s theme is “Improving Outcomes for English Language Learners: Oral Language and Literacy Learning Across the Curriculum.”  Speakers and workshops will present current research on methods for building literacy skills and oral language development throughout school curriculum for English language learners.  Those working with refugee students may be particularly interested in the session on newcomer programs
  
  
• “Practical Considerations: The Nexus of Social Work and Law in International Child Welfare”, a conference co-sponsored by International Social Services (ISS-USA) and the University of Maryland School of Social Work, will take place on October 30-31 in Baltimore, Maryland.  In attendance will be legal and social service personnel who work with refugee, asylee, immigrant, and trafficked children and families separated across borders. 

FUNDING

• The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is designed to improve the economy by offering funding to states for a variety of programs, including those that improve the educational outcomes of children most in need, like English language learners (ELLs).  You can research the Recovery Act Web site by state to see what types of Recovery programs are in your area and to investigate funding opportunities for serving refugee children and families in your state.



• Office Depot offers grants to non-profit or civic organizations that serve the needs of communities, particularly those of children and families.  While grants range from a minimum of $50 to a maximum of $10,000, Office Depot most often awards grants of around $1,000.  The deadline is ongoing.



• KaBoom Community Partnership Grants by KaBOOM! awards grants to community non-profit organizations to build new playgrounds or skate parks in their neighborhood.  While KaBoom! prefers organizations that serve children, they also award funding to community development organizations, neighborhood coalitions, or any organization that can recruit volunteers and is located in a community in need of a playground.  The deadline is ongoing.



• The W.H.O. Foundation: Women Helping Others awards grants to organizations and grass-roots charities that serve the overlooked needs of women and/or children in the United States and Puerto Rico.  The Foundation specifically looks for projects or programs that focus on health and social service needs. The Foundation recognizes the value of new programs that respond to changing needs, which is particularly relevant to agencies serving refugees and immigrants. Grants are awarded in the amount of $5,000 to $30,000.  The deadline is ongoing.

RESOURCES

For Refugee and Immigrant Youth

• Be My Neighbor celebrates the many different ways children live in a community with others.  Around the world, children live in neighborhoods—from remote villages in Canada to small towns in France to bustling cities in Japan. Neighbors may have different cultures, customs, ages, ethnicities, or beliefs, but they all share a place where they feel at home. [Description taken from source.]

Cultural Orientation/Integration

• Chicago Welcomes You is a project that strives to lend a warm welcome to newly-arrived Burmese Karen refugees in the Chicago area by producing cultural orientation materials in Sgaw Karen, such as ring cards and books full of illustrations that describe small but important details of American life like sorting bills, school permission slips, and overpriced groceries.  Among the resources is a children’s book, Ah Mu Weaves a Story that describes one family’s transition to Chicago from a refugee camp in Thailand. 



• Welcome to the United States, a resettlement guidebook for refugees produced by the Cultural Orientation Resource Center, is now available for free download in Amharic, Arabic, English, Farsi, Karen, Kirundi, Russian, Somali, Spanish, and Swahili.  A hard copy of this guidebook is disseminated overseas to refugees once they are approved to resettle to the United States.  The book includes information that refugees need to know about finding housing, employment, maintaining good health, and managing money. 

Child Welfare

• Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention: Reports from the Field and Ideas for the Future presents research on the prevention of child maltreatment in the United States.  The authors interviewed six experts and conducted a web survey of professionals in the field of child welfare to examine the current extent, quality and effectiveness of child maltreatment measures.  One of the six child welfare experts interviewed for the paper describes the unique challenges that arise in working with immigrant youth and families, such as language barriers and immigrations status that may restrict a family’s access to child welfare services. 



• Reports on America: Children in Immigrant Families Chart New Path by the Population Reference Bureau is a report that found that children in immigrant families tend to be poorer than children of native-born families.  The report also found that many immigrant children in the United States are Hispanic, and this population is projected to grow to 31% of all American children by 2030.  In light of these findings, the report assesses how factors such as poverty and different levels of education and language ability affect children’s well-being, especially immigrant and second-generation youth.



• “Unique Challenges for Immigrant Families in the Child Welfare System” is on page 8 of the Spring edition of Voice.  Immigrant families often have little understanding and considerable fear of the formal social service system and experience unique challenges when interacting with the child welfare system, such as differences in parenting styles and language barriers.  This article provides an overview of the difficulties of integrating immigrant families into existing child welfare service systems. 

Education

• Academic Language and Literacy Diagnostic (ALLD), created by the New York City Department of Education, is a diagnostic tool designed to identify Students with Interrupted Formal Education (SIFE).  The ALLD standardizes the SIFE identification process for children who speak English or Spanish as a home language.  Many refugee youth arriving to the United States may have missed or been forced to stop attending school in their home countries or while displaced abroad.  New York City public schools use this standardized diagnostic test to identify SIFE among new children entering the school system. 



• Seven Resources for Parents and Schools is a series of publications for newcomer parents and families to American schools produced by the state of Washington.  Among the publications are resources that cover topics like resolving conflict at school, parent and student rights, participating in your child’s education, making the most of parent-teacher conferences, bullying at school, and the inner-workings of a school district. Most of these materials are translated into Cambodian, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Somali, Spanish and Vietnamese.  

Health/Mental Health

• Partnering with Parents and Families to Support Immigrant and Refugee Children at School by the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools is an issue brief that describes the impact made by growing numbers of immigrant and refugee students entering American classrooms.  The brief also explains how families play an important role in student mental health and how schools can work with newcomer families in a culturally-sensitive way to provide school-based mental health services.



• Mental Health Issues in Unaccompanied Refugee Minors, published by Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, is a study that evaluated Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) in the United States.  After assessing medical records of URMs from 1998 to 2008, the study found that these children have higher levels of PTSD than non-refugee youth and accompanied refugee minors.  The article calls for further study on long-term outcomes, stress management, and the creation of standardized, culturally-sensitive measures for a diverse refugee population of unaccompanied children suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.  



• HealTorture.org is a new Web site by the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) that acts as a Clearinghouse, which includes information and resources on serving survivors of torture.  The Web site also features a special section on working with youth.  Visit HealTorture.org to find articles, books, links and bibliographies compiled specifically to assist those working with victims of torture, including youth.

Child Care

• Ten Policies to Improve Access to Quality Child Care for Children in Immigrant Families by the Center for Law and Social Policy is an article that investigates how agencies serving newcomer families can make use new government funding.  Recently $2 billion in funding became available through the Child Care and Development Block Grant, which is a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  This article presents ten specific suggestions for how states and organizations can use this funding to improve access to quality child care for children in immigrant families.

Trafficking

• Give Girls a Chance: Tackling Child Labour, a Key to the Future by the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour is a report that examines the vulnerability of girls to child trafficking.  The report includes statistics on girls’ work and features of the work assigned to young and adolescent girls around the world.  The report also features a section on girls and their ability to attain an education in lieu of child labor.  Service providers may find this article helpful in better understanding the disparities that accompany gender, especially in relation to girls’ vulnerability to child labor and abuse.

Program Development

• Preparing to Take Advantage of New Programs in the Economic Stimulus Package: Considerations for Out-of-School Time Providers and Stakeholders from the Finance Project states that many afterschool programs are experiencing funding cuts due to the economy.  This report describes many funding opportunities in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that afterschool program managers can apply for.