BRYCS - Bridging Refugee Youth and Children's Services

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The international journal Evaluation and Program Planning invites submissions for a special issue on the intersection of immigration and child welfare. This special issue will place an emphasis on issues affecting evaluation and program planning with programs serving immigrants. The co-editors are seeking articles which discuss fiscal, legislative, legal, ethical and practice issues affecting evaluation or planning with immigrant children and families, and the implications for public and private service providers and policymakers who work with this population. Short abstracts (200-500 words) should be submitted to Dr. Alan Dettlaff by September 19, 2008 for review.

In light of national news coverage regarding the high rate of domestic violence-related incidences and deaths across Hmong communities in the United States, Hmong National Development (HND) along with community members and domestic violence service providers came together this past year to organize around this issue. This fall 2008, HND will be organizing a National Hmong Domestic Violence Convening in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to target Hmong domestic violence service providers, community advocates, and Executive Directors of Hmong Mutual Assistance Associations. For more information or to get involved with this convening, please contact Srida Moua.

EVENTS

American Humane is hosting a teleconference series on Wednesday, August 27, 12 pm EST titled Collaboration Is Best Practice: The Migration and Child Welfare National Network (MCWNN). BRYCS staff and consultants will be on the panel together with other MCWNN colleagues. The teleconference will provide information on child welfare practice with immigrants and refugees, including risk and protective factors, different immigrant categories and related eligibility for services and benefits, and the range of resources available through the MCWNN. Central to the teleconference will be the discussion of case scenarios and a question and answer session. Please join us!

Crossing Borders, Connecting Families: International Social Work in the 21st Century will be held September 18-20, 2008. This three day comprehensive training will cover a wide range of topics that directly affect the practice of social work in America, including international child welfare, repatriation, immigration, home studies and adoption and other transnational issues. BRYCS staff will be presenting on “Domestic Issues in International Social Service: Casework across Cultures.” We hope you will join us!

The Sixth National Conference on Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations will be held September 21-24 in Minneapolis, MN. This year’s conference will focus on the importance of collaborative relationships and the mechanics of developing such partnerships. Also of interest to BRYCS’ audiences are the workshops on organizational cultural competence, building community coalitions with ethnic communities, and integrating traditional healing practices into services.

The 2008 National Refugee and Immigrant Conference will be held in Chicago, Illinois, September 25-26, 2008. The convening will offer the opportunity to identify issues and highlight promising practices among groups and individuals assisting refugee and immigrant children and their families. The conference will include sessions on integrating services, creating partnerships, multiple-risk families, Pre-K-12 educational issues, adult education, health issues, refugee influxes, and job development. BRYCS will be presenting on “Strengthening Refugee Families: Resources for Service Providers.” We hope to see you there!

FUNDING

The Viola W. Bernard Foundation awards a $200,000 grant every year to programs that find innovative ways to concentrate on the relationship between the mental health and social conditions among children and families. Special attention is given to organizations that tend to the social and psychological conflicts emerging from changing needs in the community. Such needs tend to revolve around conflicts related to school support, social service and the police. The next approaching deadline is August 31, 2008.

The Ann M. Martin Foundation grants funds of up to $20,000 to small, grassroots organizations that promote children, education, and literacy programs. Organizations that support children’s arts programs are of special interest to the Ann M. Martin Foundation. The deadline is September 15, 2008.

While The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation generally offers grants to solicited proposals, the foundation also considers unsolicited proposals from organizations that focus one of its three strategic objectives: building human capital, pioneer and vulnerable populations. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation looks for programs that create innovative ways to better serve and promote the health of people within the United States. There is no deadline for unsolicited proposals.

The Hearst Foundations award grants to organizations that promote healthy, productive and inspiring lives among people of all backgrounds. The Hearst Foundations endorse programs that work within the following fields: culture, social service, education and health. The Board of Directors meets next in September, but proposals are received year-round.

RESOURCES

For Refugee and Immigrant Youth

Contribute to a collection of essays titled Choosing to be Hmong and American: Re-envisioning Identity, Community and Culture in Modern Society. The editors are seeking essays that address the question “What does it mean to be Hmong in America today?” The editors are particularly interested in how Hmong individuals and families develop bicultural identities. Please e-mail a 500-word abstract of your intended essay and a one-page CV to Vincent K. Her and Mary Louise Buley-Meissner by August 25, 2008. Full-length essays (approximately 15 pages plus notes and bibliography) will be due by January 12, 2009.

Coming to America: A Muslim Family's Story describes the daily activities of a Muslim family working hard to establish their new life in America after immigrating from Egypt. Join the Mahmoud family as they travel to the States, look for work, learn English, and adjust to American schools and culture, while staying true to their Muslim faith. An afterword explains the significance of the Qur’an as a guide for daily conduct and the five basic pillars of the Muslim faith.

Integration/Cultural Orientation

Thousands of Bhutanese refugees are currently being resettled in the U.S. To learn more about this new refugee population, see BRYCS’ new List of Highlighted Resources on the Bhutanese. This list of resources may be useful to social workers, resettlement case managers, teachers, child welfare workers, and other service providers who will interact with Bhutanese children and their families.

Child Welfare

New Populations in Rural Counties: Implications for Child Welfare, a recent report from the University of Minnesota, addresses the unique populations that make up Minnesota’s rural areas. Immigrant families are often drawn to rural areas by employment opportunities in meat packing and poultry processing companies. Such trends have posed unexpected challenges for the state’s social service system and school districts. Through focus groups, consultative meetings, forums and workshops, this report has been organized to offer background, discussion and recommendations for working with this new and distinctive population. Please note that BRYCS provided consultation to this project through our Technical Assistance Consultant based in Minnesota.

The Child Abuse and Neglect: General Information Packet and El abuso y la negligencia de menores: paquete de información general provide information on child abuse and neglect for anyone interested in the topic. The packets cover a number of topics, including the definition of child maltreatment, keys to successful prevention services, leaving children home alone, signs associated with child abuse and neglect, the purposes and functions of the child welfare system, and the consequences of child abuse and neglect. For refugee and immigrant service providers interested in more basic information on the child welfare system, please see BRYCS’ Child Welfare Toolkit.

Data from Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2008 KIDS COUNT Data Book is now available as an online database allowing you to generate custom graphs, maps, ranked lists, and state-by-state profiles. The annual Data Book is a national and state-by-state profile of the well-being of America's children that seeks to enrich discussions concerning ways to secure better futures for all kids. It ranks states on ten key measures and provides data on the economic, health, education, and social conditions of America's children and families. The Comparisons by Topic section allows you to compare specific data across multiple states including data on children in immigrant families.

Dimensions of Child Sexual Abuse Before Age 15 in Three Central American Countries, a recently published article in the Journal of Child Abuse and Neglect, examines the first national, population-based data available on child sexual abuse that occurs before age 15 in three countries: El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Though this article requires a fee, it may be useful to service providers working with youth from Central America in facilities run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s Department of Unaccompanied Children’s Services (ORR/DUCS).

The most recent issue of Children's Bureau Express offers many articles relevant to those working to recruit foster families for immigrant and refugee children, particularly in unaccompanied refugee minor programs. For example, see “Promising Practices in Diligent Recruitment of Foster and Adoptive Families,” “Resources for Diligent and Targeted Recruitment,” and “Legislative Background of the Multiethnic Placement Act.”

The book Fostering Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking and Refugee Children: A Training Course for Foster Carers, provides a comprehensive introduction to the issues for use by agencies in training experienced foster carers who have successfully completed basic foster care preparation courses. The course is designed to cover two days and will familiarize foster carers with the issues surrounding the children's situation and the realities of looking after this vulnerable population of children. Though this resource comes from the UK, it may be useful to Unaccompanied Refugee Minor staff who train foster families that accept URM/DUCS youth.

Education

Breaking Down Barriers: Immigrant Families and Early Childhood Education in New York City focuses on Bangladeshi, Chinese, Dominican, Haitian, Korean, and Russian communities of New York City. In this policy brief, strengths and challenges are identified when working with immigrant families trying to access early childhood education. The brief also provides policy recommendations on improving access to education. (Description taken from source.)

Educational Supports for Refugee Youth is a brochure designed by Pennsylvania’s Department of Education. The brochure provides background on Refugee Children’s School Impact Aid and offers an overview of the state’s Refugee Education Program and its four components: Overcoming Barriers, Coordinating Services, Participating in the Community, and High School Graduation. This brochure and program overview may be a useful example as to how to coordinate services for refugee students at the state level – especially for those receiving Refugee School Impact funding.

The Role of Schools in the English Language Learner Achievement Gap addresses how students designated as English language learners (ELL) are most likely to attend public schools with low average standardized test scores. Rather than low scores being caused by ELL student attendance, this report found that these schools have a set of characteristics associated generally with poor standardized test performance--such as high student-teacher ratios, high student enrollments and high levels of students who live in poverty or near poverty. (Description taken from source.)

Learning a New Land: Immigrant Students in American Society provides a compelling account of the lives 400 immigrant children from the Caribbean, China, Central America, and Mexico. The book covers the first five years of their journeys in the U.S. Some immigrant youth end up attending college, while others experience disappointments, frustrations, and disenchantment. This book discusses factors that contributed to their varied academic journeys.

Family

The article Family Obligation Among Children in Immigrant Families discusses an immigrant parent’s desire to provide better educational and economic opportunities to their families and children. Because of this, by the time children reach adolescence, many acknowledge their parents' efforts and cite their parents' sacrifices as sources of motivation for trying to succeed in American society. This sense of obligation contributes to their overall well-being and becomes and important consideration in life decisions. (Description summarized from source.)

Juvenile Justice

What Works, Wisconsin is a project of the University of Wisconsin and focuses on distilling the latest scientific knowledge on effective policies, practices, and programs, including “evidence-based programs,” for youth and their families, schools, and communities. This Web page has a number of “Research to Practice Briefs,” including one on Culturally Appropriate Programming.

Best Practices to Address Community Gang Problems: OJJDP’s Comprehensive Gang Model addresses three new ingredients to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s classic Comprehensive Gang Model, which include prioritizing the recruitment of faith community members and representatives from small community organizations, emphasizing multiagency collaboration, and stressing the importance of partnering with the private sector. The report discusses the development as well as best practices for planning and implementing the model. For more information on gang prevention with refugee and immigrant youth, refer back to BRYCS’ Spotlight on Helping Refugee Youth Find the Right Path.

Health/Mental Health

Screening and Assessing Immigrant and Refugee Youth in School-Based Mental Health Programs is a new Robert Wood Johnson Foundation publication co-authored by BRYCS consultant, Dr. Dina Birman. This paper provides an overview of screening, identification, and assessment tools and processes that can be used by prac¬titioners and researchers who care for immigrant and refugee youth, particularly, in school-based settings.

The study Traumatic Stress, Family Separations, and Attachment among Latin American Immigrants investigates traumatic stress, family separations, and attachment among Latin American immigrants. Those separated from family and those who are minors have a higher incidence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than their counterparts. Findings show that exposure to violence is the most bothersome event reported while family separation has a significant effect on attachment anxiety. Clinical implications are also discussed. (Description taken from source.)

Program Development

Refugee Resettlement Mapping provides users with an interactive map showing refugee resettlement trends for all US cities. Users can search for the top 20 resettlement cities or search by state. If searching by state, an age breakdown is given for all resettlement locations, which may be useful for those writing grant proposals. Users can also build a custom map from FY 2006 resettlement data.

The guide Building Effective Training Systems for Child Welfare Agencies provides an analytic framework for child welfare agencies to build a shared understanding of and commitment to the value, role, capacity, and development of their training systems. (Description taken from site.) For more resources on training child welfare providers, and specifically on working with immigrants and refugees, see BRYCS’ Lists of Highlighted Resources on Child Welfare Training Curricula for Staff Working with Refugees and Immigrants and Resources to Enhance Child Welfare Training Curricula.

Youth Voice: Listening to Refugee and Immigrant Youth