BRYCS - Bridging Refugee Youth and Children's Services

ANNOUNCEMENTS

BRYCS is developing a new Youth Arts and Voices section of our Web site! This section will showcase the artistic talents of refugee and immigrant children and youth living across the United States and will also include an expressive arts reference section. If you are aware of a local expressive arts program for refugee and immigrant youth, please let us know. For more information, read the announcement.

The Urban Institute has just released its first three policy briefs based on ground-breaking research regarding immigrant families and the U.S. child welfare system! These first briefs describe findings from the Texas state system regarding relative placements, types of abuse, and Title IV-E funding for foster care placements according to child generation and ethnicity, focusing on immigrants from Latin America. Look for more briefs from The Urban Institute from the "Identifying Immigrant Families with Child Welfare Systems" series soon! These briefs are available for free download from The Urban Institute's Web site:

Due to insecurity, violence, and targeted persecution, Iraqis are seeking asylum in neighboring countries. For more information, see Who Are the Iraqi Refugees? and Iraqi Refugees: Questions and Answers from Refugee Council USA.

Protecting Children, the Journal of the American Humane Association, is issuing a call for papers that address the emerging impact of migration on child welfare services in the United States. Manuscripts are due June 15, 2007. Click here to read more about the topics and scope of this issue. For author instructions, click here. (Description taken from the Web site.)

EVENTS

On Their Own: The 2nd Annual Conference on Unaccompanied Immigrant Children, hosted by the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, will be held May 17-19 in Miami, Florida. The conference will discuss immigration relief and advocacy for unaccompanied immigrant children.

Preventing Lead Poisoning Among Refugee Children: A Midwest Regional Training Workshop will take place May 18 in Chicago at Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights. This workshop is for Refugee Service Providers (VOLAGs and MAAs), Refugee Health Program Staff and Medical Providers, Lead Poisoning Prevention Staff, CBOs, and Other Interested Persons. For more information on lead poisoning, refer to the CDC/ORR Lead Poisoning Prevention in Newly Arrived Refugee Children: Tool Kit.

The 2007 Survivors of Torture Empowerment Program (STEP) Conference will be in Washington, DC on May 24-26. Boat People S.O.S. will be hosting this event, which will unite Vietnamese torture survivors to promote access to health, mental health and support services. The Conference will also offer training to caregivers, service providers, and government officials on cultural competency and best practices.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s 2007 Annual Convention will be held in Washington DC from June 8-10. This year’s convention, “Toward a More Perfect Union,” will continue the legacy of the largest annual gathering of Arab Americans in the United States’ capital. (Description summarized from the website.)

UNHCR’s annual World Refugee Day is June 20. This year’s theme is “A New Home, a New Life.” Visit USA for UNHCR’s Web site for a schedule of events and other details.

Child Indicators: Diverse Approaches to a Shared Goal, a conference hosted by the International Society for Child Indicators and Chapin Hall, is taking place in Chicago on June 26-28. The conference will explore how child indicators can be used to improve the development and well-being of the world’s children. Review the conference agenda and other conference details.

FUNDING

Funding is available from the Department of Education for two types of programs. The purpose of the High School Equivalency Program is to help migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their children obtain their general education diplomas (GEDs). The purpose of the College Assistance Migrant Program is to provide the same population with the academic and financial support necessary to complete their first year of college. Institutions of higher education (IHE) or nonprofits that plan their projects in cooperation with an IHE are eligible to apply. The deadline for both grant proposals is May 17, 2007.

Target Corporation 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 to apply is May 31.

The RGK Foundation is offering grants for community, education, and health projects, including human services, community improvement, abuse prevention and youth development/educational enrichment programs. Non-profits must first submit letters of inquiry. The next deadline is June 1.

The Family and Youth Services Bureau is awarding grants for Street Outreach Programs for runaway and homeless youth. The purpose of such programs is to conduct outreach services designed to build relationships between grantee staff and street youth. Applications are due June 4, 2007.

Access to Artistic Excellence, a grant from the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts, funds projects that provide short-term arts exposure or arts appreciation for children and youth, as well as intergenerational arts education. The deadline for applications is August 13.

The Department of Health and Human Services is soliciting research applications aimed at increasing the parenting skills and capacities of parents and caregivers to improve the health outcomes of their young and adolescent children. Read the full request for proposals for details. Submission dates vary.

FOR REFUGEE YOUTH

Check out Mawi’s Web site, created by a former refugee. Mawi Asgedom fled civil war in Ethiopia and survived a Sudanese refugee camp for three years. After being resettled in The United States at age seven, Mawi overcame welfare, language barriers, and personal tragedy to graduate from Harvard University. (Description taken from the Web site.)

RESOURCES

Integration

The U.S. Department of State has released the fact sheet, Opening Doors, Restoring Hope: The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. The fact sheet is a brief summary of the U.S. refugee admissions program. It is appropriate for educators, volunteers, and others working with refugees, to learn about how refugees are resettled here.

The report, A Profile of Immigrants in Arkansas, from the Urban Institute, examines the immigration trends affecting economic, social, and political institutions in Arkansas. It profiles immigrants' countries of birth, legal status, educational attainment, poverty, homeownership, employment, and the primary industries in which they are employed.

The Migration Policy Institute’s Global Migration City Map provides maps of cities around the world – including many in the United States – with large numbers of foreign-born residents.

Child Welfare

The report, Kids' Share 2007: How Children Fare in the Federal Budget, from the Urban Institute, analyzes historical and future trends in the federal budget, revealing that children are a diminishing national priority. Of the federal programs analyzed as part of this report is the Bilingual and Immigrant Education program.

National Study of Child Care for Low-Income Families: State and Community Substudy: Interim Report examines how states and communities implement policies and programs to meet the child care needs of families moving from welfare to work, as well as those of other low-income families. The report includes low-income immigrant families in its report. (Author’s Abstract).

State Fact Sheets on Foster Care, from the NRCFCPPP, were created with data supplied by both the Children's Bureau and individual states, as part of the National Foster Care Month campaign. Each fact sheet contains both state-level statistics and contact information for people interested in becoming foster parents.

Families

Promoting Healthy Families in Your Community: 2007 Resource Pack was created to support a wide range of service providers who work with parents, other caregivers, and their children with the common goal of promoting healthy families. This packet is targeted specifically for service providers, so that they can more effectively promote healthy families.

Promoting Healthy Families in Your Community, a poster in both English and Spanish for Child Abuse Prevention Month 2007, identifies how professionals working with parents and caregivers can support and enhance five protective factors that increase the safety and well-being of children and families. (Description taken from the web site).

The National Center for Children in Poverty's initiative Making "Work Supports" Work examines the current patchwork of federal and state programs that assist low-wage workers and their families. “Work supports” are public benefits, such as earned income tax credits, child care subsidies, health care coverage, housing assistance, and food stamps.

Education

The Minnesota Humanities Center has a Somali Bilingual Initiative and a Hmong Translation Initiative, which are initiatives to publish traditional Somali and Hmong folktales in fully illustrated children’s books. These initiatives recognize that the ability to become literate in the home language is a significant variable in determining whether an immigrant can achieve literacy in a new language. (Description summarized from the Web site.)

Measures of Change: The Demography and Literacy of Adolescent English Learners, a report from the Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy provides a demographic profile of adolescent students who are English Language Learners. It also examines these adolescents are faring on standardized tests at the national level and in four states.

Two new briefs are available from the Harvard Family Research Project. Family Involvement in Elementary School Children's Education reviews research on why and how family involvement matters for elementary school children's learning and socio-emotional development. Family Involvement in Early Childhood Education reviews family involvement research and its implications in early childhood education. (Description taken from the web site).

Last in Line, Last in School: How Donors Are Failing Children in Conflict-Affected Fragile States, from Save the Children, examines why children in conflict-affected areas are not getting a proper education. The report provides a list of the conflict-affected countries they are referring to – many of which produce the refugees who resettle in the United States. This report will provide educators with information on the education systems of many of the countries from which their students are from.

Health

The Refugee Health Information Network (RHIN) is now online. RHIN is a national collaborative partnership, managed by refugee health professionals, whose objective is to provide quality multilingual, health information resources for those providing care to resettled refugees and asylees. (Description taken from the web site).

New York State’s Food Stamp Nutrition and Education Program has a number of resources available in Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish including Healthy Nutrition Tips for Your Busy Life, Food Allergies, and more.

Juvenile Justice

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has added a new easy access tool, the Statistical Briefing Book. This tool provides online information about juvenile crime and victimization and youth involved in the juvenile justice system. (Description taken from the web site).

Another tool available from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is the Easy Access to the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement tool, which provides access to juvenile offender data and can create tables displaying national data from the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement, which can be imported into spreadsheets for further analysis.

Program Development

The SMARRT Manual is a recruitment and retention strategies manual designed to help child welfare agencies develop effective strategies for recruitment, selection, training, and retention of personnel. It includes research-based findings as well as practical, hands-on tools and information for these agencies. (Description taken from the web site).

COMING SOON:

New publications this year by BRYCS will include:

An illustrated educational booklet for refugees about parenting and U.S. child protection laws available for free download, on a CD, and in hard copy.

Monthly articles with highlights from interviews with refugee parents on their traditional parenting practices, their challenges parenting in the U.S., and helpful suggestions.

REFUGEE PARENT INTERVIEWS

HELPING REFUGEE YOUTH FIND THE RIGHT PATH