BRYCS - Bridging Refugee Youth and Children's Services

ANNOUNCEMENTS

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. The book is currently only available in English. It is our goal to translate it into as many languages as possible and we will update you when these other editions are available. The CD version and printed and bound copies will be available for FREE in October/November. Place your order now to reserve yours at info@brycs.org! Limit of five per agency, please. Use this one-page flyer to advertise the booklet in your refugee resettlement agency, child welfare organization, or school!

In anticipation of the arrival of Bhutanese refugees from Nepal, view this PowerPoint, viewable here in PDF format, created by the UNHCR, which provides a general overview of this population.

EVENTS

Join BRYCS at the Strengthening Refugee Families: Issues, Best Practices, and Innovations conference in Chicago on October 22-23. This conference offers a national opportunity to identify issues, emphasize best practices, and highlight innovations among groups and individuals assisting refugee and immigrant children and their families. The conference will include sessions on: integration of services, creating partnerships, multiple-risk families, PK -12 educational issues, family life education, health issues, and refugee influxes, as listed here in the agenda. BRYCS will present on “Promising Practices for Serving Refugee and Immigrant Children and their Families” on October 22 at 2:45.

Reducing Disproportionate Minority Contact in Juvenile Justice by Making the Right Connections will be in Denver, Colorado on October 25-27. It is being put on by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and will include sharing information on successful programs that have implemented partnerships to involve systems such as education, child welfare, labor, health, mental health, and/or substance abuse treatment systems in reducing racial and ethnic disparity or over representation of minority youth across systems.

The 2007 National Even Start Association Conference will be in San Diego, California on October 28-30. It is designed for service providers and educators involved with family literacy programs. Concurrent sessions related to early childhood education, adult education, parenting education, interactive literacy, program management and evaluation will be held.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition will have their annual summit in Washington, DC on October 29-31. Sessions will be divided into six strands including professional development, Title III accountability, language education program approaches, early childhood education, research, and parent and community outreach groups.

The National Conference on Safe Schools and Communities will be held in Washington, DC on October 29-31 and will feature bullying prevention, mentoring, program evaluation, and community programs, with special sessions on youth courts and mental health. Additional sessions will address gangs, juvenile and restorative justice, and protective factors and resilience, among other subjects.

Communities In Schools will hold its national conference, Leadership for Change: A Nation without Dropouts on October 31- November 4, in Atlanta, GA. The conference is expected to bring together more than 1,200 leaders engaged in youth development, education reform, and community-strengthening efforts to discuss the current dropout problem and ways to address it.

The Search Institute’s annual Healthy Communities, Healthy Youth Conference will be in Rochester, NY on November 8-10. The theme is “Transforming Relations for the Common Good” and the focus is working together to promote positive youth development through asset building. The conference is for adults and youth and there are several international presenters.

National Health Promoters Leadership Training for Refugee and Immigrant Women will be held in Atlanta, Georgia on November 12-16. It will be put on by the Refugee Women’s Network, Inc. and is for refugee women leaders who are interested in conducting health education activities in their own ethnic communities. The 5-day training will address the issues of critical components of a successful health promoter program, leadership development, group decision-making to develop solutions for and by the community, developing community collaborations, and resource development. The application deadline is October 15.

Bi-Annual Conference of the National Network to End Violence Against Immigrant Women will be in Lexington, Kentucky on November 14-15. The conference will include sessions on issues that affect immigrant victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and trafficking. It is co-chaired by Legal Momentum, ASISTA Immigration Technical Assistance Project, and the Family Violence Prevention Fund.

The American Humane Association’s 2nd annual Conference on Differential Response will be in Long Beach, California from November 14-16. Differential response, also referred to as “dual track,” “multiple track,” or “alternative response,” is an approach that allows child protective services to respond differently to accepted reports of child abuse and neglect. This conference aims to build knowledge, disseminate ongoing practices, and provide a platform for the exchange of ideas on a range of topics related to implementing differential response in child welfare.

ONLINE TRAINING

Mercy Housing has created an Online Learning Center located on their Refugee Housing Web site. This learning center is designed to help equip members of the resettlement community to find quality, affordable housing for refugees. (Description taken from Web site.)

As a part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network’s Culture and Trauma Speaker Series, an online training was recently given on Child and Adolescent Refugee Mental Health. The full video presentation can be viewed online.

Systems Change: Sounds great, but how do I do it? is a free online training which will be held October 30 from 2:00-3:30 EST. It is co-sponsored by National 4-H Headquarters, USDA and CYFERnet Teen Editorial Board and is intended for individuals who work in communities with children, youth and families. The focus of the training is to broaden the understanding of systems change by providing insight into the latest research.

FUNDING

The National Gardening Association in partnership with Home Depot is accepting applications for the Youth Garden Grants Program. Applicants must plan to garden with at least 15 children between the ages of three and 18 years. Schools, youth groups, community centers, camps, clubs, treatment facilities, and intergenerational groups throughout the United States are eligible to apply. The application deadline is November 1.

The State Farm Good Neighbor Service-Learning Grants of up to $1,000 are available to youth (ages 5-25), teachers, or school-based service-learning coordinators from the United States and Canada (certain provinces) to implement service-learning projects for Global Youth Service Day 2008. The deadline is October 16.

The National Education Association (NEA) Foundation is accepting applications from individuals or groups of educational professionals for its Learning and Leadership Grants. These grants are designed to provide opportunities for public: school teachers, education support professionals, and faculty and staff in public institutions of higher education to engage in high-quality professional development. Award amounts are $2,000 for individuals and $5,000 for groups engaged in collegial study. The deadline is October 15.

The National Education Association (NEA) Foundation is accepting applications from individuals or groups of educational professionals for its Student Achievement Grants. These grants are designed to improve the academic achievement of students in U.S. public schools and public higher education institutions in any subject area(s). Grant funds may be used for resource materials, supplies, equipment, transportation, software, or scholars-in-residence, and preference is given to applicants who serve economically disadvantaged students. Grant requests must total $5,000. The deadline is October 15.

FOR REFUGEE YOUTH

Each year, the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children holds a luncheon to honor individual refugee women and young people who are working on behalf of other refugees. They are now seeking candidates for the 2008 Voices of Courage Awards to be bestowed at their May 6, 2008 luncheon. The deadline for making a nomination is October 15.

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, maximum award $5,000, are available to youth grades 5 through 12 who have demonstrated exemplary voluntary service to their communities. The deadline for the application is October 31.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah is a personal narrative of the author’s life as a child soldier in Sierra Leone. The author chronicles his life through the war, fleeing at the age of 12, being indoctrinated as a soldier at the age of 13, and being removed from the fighting by UNICEF at age 16, where he went through the rehabilitation process.

RESOURCES

Integration

One Out of Five U.S. Children is Living in an Immigrant Family is a snapshot from the Annie E. Casey Foundation that is based on the data from the 2007 KIDS COUNT Data Book, which was featured by BRYCS last month. This document highlights the 15.7 million children in immigrant families currently residing in the U.S. and includes background on why it is critical to help this growing group of children as well as resources for improving the well-being of children living in immigrant families. (Description taken from Web site.)

New Voices from the Bluegrass: A Portrait of Kentucky’s Children in Immigrant Families is a descriptive study released by the Kentucky Youth Advocates in partnership with the Annie E. Casey Foundation which provides a portrait of immigrant children in the state of Kentucky. This report highlights families, health, education, and identifies practical solutions to the issues facing the immigrant children of Kentucky. The Executive Summary and Press Release are available in Spanish and English.

The Initiative Overview and Interim Assessment Report of The Capacity Building Initiative: Immigrant and Refugee Organizations is a project that was developed by The Columbus Foundation of Ohio. The initiative was launched in 2005 and provides grants to nine local ethnic community based organizations, many of which have programs for refugee youth. This integration initiative’s report may be particularly useful to those communities, like Columbus, Ohio, that are receiving large numbers of immigrants and refugees for the first time.

Child Welfare

With Liberty and Justice for All…Somalis in Ohio is a CD with video clips in Somali (with English subtitles) that was produced by the Ohio State Bar Foundation to help Somali refugees learn basic legal rights and responsibilities as Ohio residents. It includes a chapter on family, which discusses marriage, domestic violence, divorce, child custody, and shared parenting. Though the CD was created for Ohioans, it may be a useful tool for those in other states. The first copy in each order is free. To order a copy, download the order form.

Families Guide to Child Protection, from the Minnesota Department of Human Services, is available in English, Hmong, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese. This 4 page resource details the process of family assessments and investigations, with an emphasis on the roles and obligations of the social services worker. Though this resource was developed by the Minnesota DHS, the concepts are general and could be applicable in other states.

The University of Minnesota’s Questions About Kids tackles common issues of concern to parents and professionals. Each issue addresses one question about young children, and it is designed for distribution at places where caregivers gather. A few questions are available in Spanish, Hmong, and Somali. (Part of description quoted directly from Web site.)

Positive Discipline: What It Is and How To Do It is a manual addressing the recommendations of the 2006 UN World Report on Violence Against Children, which calls for the elimination of all corporal punishment of children and the promotion of positive discipline. Positive discipline is explained through four basic principles that highlight the links among child development, effective parenting and child’s rights. This manual is for parents, future parents, and those who work in roles supporting parents. (Description taken from the Web site.)

Identifying and Verifying the Safe Foster Home: A Study and Assessment Method, from ACTION for Child Protection, is an assessment tool that includes 14 indicators to evaluate and compare potential foster families. For each indicator, ratings are offered and explained. The tool closes with a family support plan form.

Focus on Children in Migration is a report from a recent European conference on the topic and includes information on the different types of migrant children in Europe. The report contains information about the international response to migrant children, children’s rights once in a country, and a study about unaccompanied children. While the conference and report are based out of Europe, much of the information is general and focused on guidelines established by the United Nations, and is applicable to work being done in the United States.

Education

The Engaging Parents in Education: Lessons From Five Parental Information And Resource Centers guide is available from the Department of Education. Of special interest to those working with foreign-born parents are the sections entitled “Understanding the Audience” and “Connecting with Hard-to-Reach Parents.”

The Changing Racial and Ethnic Composition of U.S. Public Schools, from the Pew Hispanic Center, describes the change in the ethnic composition of United States’ schools over the past 12 years. The analysis shows that while white students are becoming less isolated from minority groups, black and Hispanic students are becoming slightly more isolated from white students due to the increase in the minority population in the United States.

DisabilityInfo.Gov introduces a new state and local resources map feature to assist visitors in locating disability-related information close to home. The resources are arranged nine subject areas: benefits, civil rights, community life, education, employment, health, housing, technology or transportation.

Education Options in the States: State Programs That Provide Financial Assistance for Attendance at Private Elementary or Secondary Schools, by the U.S. Department of Education, provides information about state programs that provide financial assistance such as education vouchers and tax credits that help families send their children to private elementary and secondary schools. (Description taken from the report.)

The Institute of Education Sciences’ What Works Clearinghouse collects, screens, and identifies studies of effectiveness of educational interventions (programs, products, practices, and policies). Current topics of interest to those working with refugees are Dropout Prevention and English Language Learners. (Part of description taken from Web site.)

Human Trafficking of Children in the United States: A Fact Sheet for Schools, from the U.S. Department of Education, is a two page resource that explains how human trafficking affects schools, as well as how to identify and report suspected trafficking crimes.

Child Care

The Challenges of Change: Learning from the Child Care and Early Education Experiences of Immigrant Refugees, from the Center for Law and Policy (CLASP), is a study designed to identify the barriers that impede immigrant families from accessing high-quality child care and early education programs and to identify solutions for how these problems may be remedied. The study explores three main topics: immigrant participation in child care and early education, barriers immigrant family’s face for participation in these programs, and how policy makers can improve access for families. (Description taken from the article.)

Listening to Black and Minority Ethnic Parents About Childcare is a publication from Daycare Trust, based in the United Kingdom that looks at what parents from black and minority ethnic communities think about childcare and shows that, for some families, it can be life-changing. Many of the issues discussed are applicable to the United States, including the high cost of child care, taboos against the use of child care, and the cultural ramifications of having one’s child cared for by someone from a different culture.

Program Development

The United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley has released ToolFind, a new, Web-based directory to help professionals in youth-serving programs find measurement tools for up to eleven youth outcome areas. Some outcome areas that may be helpful for those working with refugee youth are assets/resiliency, problem solving/decision making, and self concept.

Getting Inside the Story: Ethnographic Approaches to Evaluation, from the Ford Foundation, focuses on how to use ethnographic approaches to document the process of change, especially for evaluation purposes. For example, ethnography involves participant observation and working inside the organization or community of study while maintaining the position of an outsider. (Description summarized from document.)

Preparing Staff to Work with Immigrant Youth is a report written by the National Youth Development Center to provide a context for understanding the diversity of today’s immigrant youth and families as well as issues involved in serving them. It also includes information about the ideal characteristics of staff hired to serve immigrant youth, strategies for recruiting and retaining staff, professional development strategies, and an overview of the leadership and vision required to make these efforts successful. (Description taken from the report.)

FAMILY AND COMMUNITY CENTERED CHILD WELFARE PRACTICE WITH REFUGEES AND IMMIGRANTS