| |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
REFUGEE PARENT INTERVIEWS
In order to gather first-hand accounts
of parenting and resettlement challenges
and successes, BRYCS staff are conducting
a series of interviews with refugee parents.
Each interview summary will be followed
by several discussion questions, so that
refugee serving agencies can use the interviews
as a staff development tool. A new interview
will be added monthly, so check back!
 Farah,
An Iraqi Mother
Jarsso,
an Oromo Ethiopian Father
Aline,
A Burundian Social Worker
Caridad
and Arturo, A Cuban-Chilean Family
John
and Ellen, A Liberian Family
Mary, A Sudanese Mother
Anna,
a Russian Mother
Klee
Thoo, a Burmese Karen Father
Tou
and Mee, Hmong Parents
|
|
PROMISING PRACTICES
FOR REFUGEE-SERVING
PROGRAMS
International
Kid Success is a school-based program in Denver,
Colorado that was created to assist refugee and
immigrant children and youth adjust to a new school,
culture, and country. The program offers adjustment
groups for all students in ESL classes to support
them during their transition to the U.S., as well
as diversity education workshops to the general
student body to learn about tolerance and respect.
The
International Community School of DeKalb County, Georgia brings refugee, immigrant and native-born elementary school children together for a unique academic experience. This charter school offers a range of services in and out of school for students, ranging from one-on-one tutoring to after-school enrichment programs to Saturday School for parents and siblings to learn English.
|
BRYCS will continue to develop our “promising
practices” series in the coming months as we
share the innovative work being accomplished by programs
serving refugee children and their families throughout
the United States. Please be sure to visit BRYCS'
Targeted Resources for Program
Managers, where you will find a link to the complete
list of Program Descriptions in the Clearinghouse.
If you have a program to share, or are aware of
any creative efforts towards enhancing services
for refugee children, please contact BRYCS with
the details. We want to recognize and profile these
efforts, so that others can learn from them. We
are also interested in hearing from you about what
tools, resources or mechanisms that you would like
to learn more about. Email
info at brycs.org or call 202-541-3232 to speak
with our Outreach and Information Coordinator.
|
|
|
|
| Bridging
Refugee Youth and Children’s Services (BRYCS)
is a national technical assistance project working to broaden
the scope of information and collaboration among service providers
- in order to strengthen services to refugee youth, children
and their families. Read more about our mission and services.
Who is a refugee?
 Now
you can sign up online to receive the BRYCS Bulletin Alert
via email, as well as sign up for our new BRYCS Discussion
Listserv.
|
|
BRYCS is pleased to present our newest publication, Raising
Children in a New Country: An Illustrated Handbook.
This booklet was created as a tool for refugee and immigrant
serving agencies, as they help newcomer parents adjust to
the different laws, norms and practices around raising children
in the United States. Please see our Publications
page if you prefer to download the handbook in smaller
segments. To order print or CD copies of the Handbook, please
email info@brycs.org or
call 1-888-572-6500. If you are interested in translating
this book into other languages, please refer to the Translation
and Copyright Guidelines for Service Providers and
accompanying sample cover page in PDF
or MSWord
format.
|
| |
|
|
SPRING
2008 SPOTLIGHT
|
Every time I opened my mouth they would start
making fun of me. And the only thing I can do
is just go to the restroom and cry. I was crying
all day long, every day. Now I have friends and
people actually think I’m popular. But actually,
I’m the same person. [1,
Armenian youth]
|
Today, nearly one-fifth of American students
has immigrant parents, making this group the fastest-growing
segment of the youth population.[2]
Foreign-born students—and in particular, refugee
students—may face challenges adapting academically
to American schools, due to minimal formal education,
interrupted schooling, and limited English. Beyond adapting
academically, newcomer students also go through a period
of cultural adjustment—adapting to American culture
overall, as well as to the particular culture of their
school; and social adjustment—attempting to make
friends, and striving to belong in their new school, community,
and country.
The individual experiences of foreign-born
families as well as the characteristics and infrastructure
of the receiving communities affect how well newcomer
children adapt to their new schools—academically,
culturally, and socially. This Spotlight will focus primarily
on students’ cultural and social adjustment, while
recognizing the positive academic impact of successful
socio-cultural adjustment. We examine the steps that teachers
and administrators can take to integrate refugee children
and youth into their schools, first looking at newcomer
programs and other means of welcoming and accommodating
foreign-born students, then discussing means of facilitating
the social integration of newcomer students by teaching
American-born students about refugee and immigrant populations,
openly discussing racism, and preventing bullying.
To read BRYCS Spring 2008 Spotlight, click
here. In addition, please see BRYCS' list of highlighted
resources: Immigrant/Refugee
Awareness Instructional Materials and Children’s
Books about the Immigrant/Refugee Experience.
To see any of the past Spotlights
or lists of highlighted resources by topic, please visit
Resources by Topic.
1. Center for Applied Linguistics,
Cultural Orientation Resource Center. (2006). A
New Day: Refugee Families in the United States.
http://calstore.cal.org/store/detail.aspx?ID=333
2. Suarez-Orozco, C. & Suarez-Orozco, M. (2006).
Moving Stories: The Educational Pathways of Immigrant
Youth. http://www.agi.harvard.edu/newsletter/papers/AGATrajectoriesPaper.pdf
|
|
|
|
WHAT'S
NEW - MAY 2008 |
ANNOUNCEMENTS
BRYCS is pleased to announce the release of its new “Youth Arts and Voices” Web page! This Web page showcases the creative contribution and artistic talent of refugee and immigrant youth from around the U.S. The Web page presents visual arts by newcomer youth, along with countless resources and information about expressive art programs for youth. BRYCS’ Summer Spotlight article (to be posted in June 2008), will focus on “Youth Voice” by highlighting the many resources available in this new “Youth Arts and Voices” Web page. We welcome your feedback on this new BRYCS initiative!
The 2008 National Refugee and Immigrant Conference: Issues and Innovations” will take place in Chicago, Illinois, September 25-26, 2008. Conference organizers are soliciting proposals from professionals in education, health care, marriage and parenting education, family support services, job development, university faculty, and refugee and immigrant services. This national conference aims to identify issues, emphasize best practices and highlight innovations by providing those who work with refugees and immigrants an opportunity to network and learn from one another.
EVENTS
Prevent Child Abuse America National Conference 2008 will take place May 19-22 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Conference Registration Book is now available to download; it includes descriptions of all conference sessions and events including a presentation by BRYCS’ colleague, Sonia Velazquez, on Wellbeing and Immigrant Families: The Intersection of Migration and Child Welfare. To register, click here.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) will be hosting its annual national consultation on May 28-29 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, VA. This year's consultation theme is "Consultation, Coordination, and Collaboration." The event will focus on bringing ORR stakeholders together for concrete discussions and exchanges of ideas on issues of importance to the refugee resettlement community. BRYCS will help facilitate sessions on child welfare as well as education.
American Humane’s 2008 Conference on Family Group Decision Making will take place from June 3-6, 2008, in Tucson, Arizona, and includes a number of sessions addressing cultural competency. Family Group Decision Making (FGDM), a model of child welfare practice that can be particularly useful for refugee and immigrant families, was highlighted in a previous BRYCS Spotlight article.
The 27th Annual National CASA Conference will take place June 7-10, 2008, in Washington, DC. This conference is appropriate for juvenile and family court judges and other child welfare professionals. The conference will have four tracks, including a “Cultural Competency” track, in which BRYCS staff will take part.
The 2008 National Convening of Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR), titled “Promoting Immigrant Integration: Leadership in Challenging Times”, will be held in Chicago, Illinois, June 18-20, 2008. The convening will focus on some of the most critical immigrant-related issues facing communities across the United States, including current local, state and federal policies that further or compromise immigrants’ ability to integrate, the importance of building cross-issue, cross-community and cross-sector alliances, and efforts to strengthen the infrastructure for immigrant civic integration. For more information, contact Alison de Lucca at Alison@gcir.org.
The American Professional Society of the Abuse of Children (APSAC) 16th Annual Colloquium will be held in Phoenix, Arizona from June 18-21. BRYCS’ audiences may be particularly interested in the workshop titled “Assessing Child Maltreatment in Multicultural Populations,” which will address how religious rites and cultural practices can be misunderstood for child maltreatment, and conversely, how parents can claim that a practice is cultural as an excuse for maltreatment.
Childhood & Migration: Interdisciplinary Conference 2008 will be held in Philadelphia on June 20-22, 2008. It will be put on by the Working Group on Childhood and Migration and is open to researchers and policy advocates from all disciplines and all areas of the world whose work focuses on the ways that increased migration affects children and the cultural, legal, educational, medical, and psychological perception of childhood. For more information, contact Rachel Reynolds at rrr@drexel.edu or 215-895-0498.
The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Annual Conference will take place in Arlington, Virginia, on July 21–23, 2008. The conference will bring together criminal justice scholars, policymakers, and practitioners at the local, state, and federal levels to share the latest research findings and technology. This year's conference includes a panel on youth gang research and best practices organized by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Other panel topics that may be of particular interest to BRYCS’ audience include the commercial sexual exploitation of children, school-based prevention programs, and bullying.
The National Migration Conference will be held in Washington, DC, July 28-31, 2008. Co-sponsored by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops/Migration and Refugee Services (USCCB/MRS), the conference aims to educate the public, particularly public policy makers, on the challenges and abuses faced by refugees, immigrants, migrants, trafficking victims, and other persons on the move in the United States and throughout the world. The conference sessions will address an array of issues related to migration, with an emphasis on the ethical perspective of the American Catholic Church. For more information, contact Todd Scribner at tscribner@usccb.org. (Description taken from source.)
FUNDING
Target is offering grants for early childhood, arts, and family violence prevention programs in communities with Target stores. Nonprofits, schools, libraries and public agencies are eligible to apply; the deadline is May 31, 2008.
Mazda Foundation Grants focus on youth-oriented initiatives, funding nonprofit organizations in the areas of education, literacy, social welfare, scientific research, cross-cultural understanding, and environmental conservation. To apply for a grant, organizations must submit an application form, available on the Mazda Foundation Web site. Applications are accepted between May 1 and July 1.
The American Immigration Law Foundation will award education grants for the 2008-2009 year to a limited number of K-12 grade level projects that provide education about immigrants and immigration. The foundation seeks to fund activities that are innovative and supportive of AILF's mission of promoting the benefits of immigrants to the United States. Submissions will be accepted in June and November of 2008.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announces its 2009 Call for Proposals with their Local Funders Program. Local grant makers may propose a funding partnership with RWJF to support a community-based project that focuses on health or health care problems of people who are not reached by traditional programs. The deadline for applications is July 8, 2008.
RESOURCES
Cultural Orientation
Groups in East and Sub-Saharan Africa, the most recent overseas cultural orientation program highlighted by COR, is now online. This profile of Church World Service/Overseas Processing Entity in Nairobi, Kenya (CWS/OPE) includes sections on caseload, cultural orientation (CO) classes, general environment for CO attendees, and considerations for domestic resettlement agencies.
Ninemillion.org—a campaign of UNHCR, the UN refugee agency—is committed to giving refugee youth the chance to learn and play, recognizing that education and sport can improve their lives. When new refugee groups resettle in the U.S., it is important for service providers to obtain background information on new populations. This site contains a video gallery which includes videos of refugee youth from Tham Him refugee camp in Thailand, where many of the Burmese refugees, who are now coming to the U.S., are from.
Child Welfare
The Child Welfare Trauma Toolkit (2008), developed by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, is designed to teach basic knowledge, skills, and values about working with children who are in the child welfare system and who have experienced traumatic stress. It also teaches how to use this knowledge to support children’s safety, permanency, and well-being through case analysis and corresponding interventions tailored for them and their biological and resource families. For a nominal fee (to partially cover printing, shipping and handling costs) orders can be placed now at www.castlepress.net/nctsn. (Description taken from source.) Module 2 addresses cultural influences on trauma responses.
Through the Eyes of a Child: Refugee Children Speak about Violence is the culmination of a series of groundbreaking participatory assessments carried out by UNHCR from 2005 to 2007. Children living in refugee and returnee situations in Southern Africa were asked: how children are being treated, how they perceive the violence with which they are often faced, how they cope, and what suggestions they have for improving their situation. The holding of such assessments forms part of UNHCR’s strategy for age, gender and diversity mainstreaming, the overall aim of which is to promote gender equality and the rights of all refugees. (Description taken from source.)
Education
Gaining Ground: Supporting English Learners Through After-School Literacy Programming by Julie Goldsmith, Linda Jucovy and Amy Arbreton, provides important insights about what can be achieved in a comprehensive after-school program that engages children and exposes them to a quality literacy component. In addition, the brief suggests important considerations for policymakers and funders interested in the success of English learners as a growing student population. (Description taken from source.)
The summary brief, Selected State and Local Policies to Support Immigrant and Limited English Proficient (LEP) Early Care and Education Providers, from the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), provides examples of language access, training, and professional development policies supporting immigrant populations.
Health/Mental Health
The USCRI Healthy Living Toolkit is designed to educate refugees and immigrants to become proactive health consumers and promoters in their communities. The Toolkit supports health professionals, health promoters, ESL teachers, and resettlement case managers in assisting refugees and immigrants to navigate the health system in order to reduce the health disparities among these populations. The Toolkit includes brochures on Keeping Your Baby Healthy, and Watching Your Child Grow. This batch of brochures is available in Arabic, Amharic, Vietnamese, Burmese, Swahili, French, Farsi, Kirundi, Bosnian, Karen, Somali, and Russian.
Early Childhood
The National Parent Center Network (PACER) has developed strategies for local early intervention outreach and has published three handouts for professionals: Getting Off to a Good Start: Positive Interactions with Diverse Families in Early Childhood Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education, Strategies for Success in Local Early Childhood Parent Outreach Activities Among Diverse Cultures, and Potential Community Partners and Locations for Parent Outreach Activities in Diverse Communities.
Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) State Plan Reported Activities to Support Limited English Proficient (LEP) and Immigrant Communities by Danielle Ewen, Aaron Nelson, and Hannah Matthews, published by The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) includes findings from a study of the state plans of CCDBG recipients across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The report includes a description of barriers that prevent children of immigrants from participating in quality early child care and education as well as recommendations for state policy makers to address such barriers. (Description taken from source.)
Program Development
Language Portal: Translation and Interpretation Digital Library, from the Migration Policy Institute, is a digital library of close to 600 resources relating to the use of language access services in social services and public safety agencies. The Portal includes legal guidelines, service models, master contracts for service providers, and hourly translation and interpretation rates. Consider it a "one-stop shopping" for the many local government administrators, policymakers, and others who are looking for ways to provide high-quality and cost effective translation and interpretation services. The database is organized by the following topic areas: Social Service, Public Safety, Health, and Education. (Description taken from source.)
Cultural Linguistic Competence: Implementation Guide was developed by the Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health (TA Partnership). The goal of the guide is to translate the theoretical construct, values, and principles established in Towards a Culturally Competent System of Care (1989); provide and update existing standards for CLC; and translate the limited research available in this area into practical, feasible, and concrete strategies that can assist communities to make cultural and linguistic competence a reality. (Description taken from source.)
|
|
| |
|
