What's New


May 2012
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ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • Call for proposals! The 8th annual National Refugee and Immigrant Conference: Issues and Innovations will take place on October 18-19 in Chicago.  The goal of this conference is to identify issues, emphasize best practices, and highlight innovations by providing those who work with refugees and immigrants an opportunity to learn from and network with one another. Proposals are due May 31.
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EVENTS

  • CLINIC's 15th Annual Convening will be held May 23-25 in Seattle, WA, and will offer workshops and plenary sessions on selected topics of interest to immigration practitioners. Workshops will be on topics such as family-based immigration, asylum, T and U Visas, and more.  A draft agenda is available online.  
  • Head Start's National Research Conference will be in Washington, DC on June 18-20.  It is a biennial event, which provides practitioners, researchers, administrators, and policy makers involved in Head Start, early childhood, childcare, health care, and administration programs the opportunity to share research that promotes positive development in young children.  BRYCS is partnering with the Office of Head Start National Center on Cultural and Linguistic Responsiveness (NCCLR) to hold two Roundtable discussions at the conference on working with refugee and immigrant communities. We hope to see you there!  
  • The American School Counselor Association's annual conference will be in Minneapolis on June 23-26.  BRYCS' audiences may particularly be interested in the sessions on working with Muslim students, bullying prevention, mental health, and integrating student culture into the curriculum.   
  • National Association of Social Workers 2012 Conference "Restoring Hope: The Power of Social Work" will be in Washington, DC on July 22-25.  This conference will bring together hundreds of social workers and other helping professionals from across the country to expand their understanding about the importance of hope and resiliency in their work. Participants will enhance their understanding about the clinical and community uses of hope, discuss best practices, and identify topics for future research. BRYCS' audiences may particularly be interested in the sessions on cultural competency, resiliency, and trauma as well as hearing from the head of the Liberian Reconciliation Initiative. 
  • FFTA's 26th Annual Conference on Treatment Foster Care will take place July 22-25 in Atlanta, GA. The conference features over 70 workshops highlighting the best practices being applied in the field.  BRYCS' colleagues from USCCB/Migration and Refugee Services will be presenting on "The Needs of Immigrant Youth and the Foster Parents Who Best Care for Them" on Wednesday.   
  • Save the Date! The Office of Refugee Resettlement's 2012 Consultations will take place September 19-20 in Arlington, VA.  The annual Consultation provides an opportunity for stakeholders to share ideas, engage in discussion, and expand partnerships.

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FUNDING

  • Head Start funding is now available in 97 service areas across the country. The Head Start program provides high-quality, comprehensive early education programming to low-income children and families so that children start school ready to succeed.  The funding opportunity announcements will be released in two groups.  Funding opportunity announcements for the first group of service areas are available today and are posted on www.Grants.gov as well as the  ACF Web site.  An additional 100 funding opportunity announcements for the second group will be available later in May.  For more information, visit the Office of Head Start's Applicant Support Web site.   
  • Multi-State Mentoring Initiative, from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, aims to enhance or expand initiatives that will help communities develop or improve mentoring programs for at-risk or high-risk populations that are underserved due to location, shortage of mentors, special physical or mental challenges of the targeted population, or other analogous situations that the community identifies.  Nonprofit and for profit organizations that provide mentoring services to at-risk youth are eligible to apply. Applicants must have been in existence for at least three years and serve between 5 and 45 states in the U.S. (National organizations are ineligible to apply.  National organizations are defined as having programs in at least 45 states.)  The deadline to apply is May 16.   
  • Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Programs Grant, from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Safe and Healthy Students, support counseling programs in target elementary, K-12, or secondary schools.  Schools will establish or expand counseling programs through hiring qualified school counselors, school social workers, school psychologists, or child and adolescent psychiatrists with a goal of expanding the range, availability, quantity and quality of counseling services available.  The estimated size of each award is $350,000.  Refugee and immigrant serving agencies should consider sharing this funding opportunity with their local school district.  The deadline to apply is May 25.   
  • Discretionary Grants Awards for Refugee Microenterprise Development Projects, from the Administration for Children and Families' (ACF) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), are being provided to various public agencies, community economic development agencies, community action and other human service agencies, local mutual assistance associations, and voluntary agencies. The deadline to apply is June 5.  
  • The Farm to School Grant Program, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, aims to assist eligible entities, through grants and technical assistance, in implementing farm to school programs that improve access to local foods in eligible schools. The deadline to apply is June 15.   
  • The Office of Refugee Resettlement invites eligible entities to submit grant applications for projects to establish and manage Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) for low-income refugee participants. Eligible refugee participants who enroll in these projects will open and contribute systematically to IDAs for specified Savings Goals, including home ownership, business capitalization, vehicles for educational or work purposes, and postsecondary education. Applications will be screened and evaluated as indicated in the published funding opportunity announcement. The deadline to apply is June 18.  
  • Refugee School Impact funding, from the Office of Refugee Resettlement, aims to support local school systems that are impacted by significant numbers of refugee children or are faced with challenges in providing education to refugee students. The deadline to apply is June 18.  
  • Promise Neighborhoods provides funding to support eligible entities, including nonprofit organizations, institutions of higher education, and Indian tribes.  The vision of the program is that all children and youth growing up in Promise Neighborhoods have access to great schools and strong systems of family and community support that will prepare them to attain an excellent education and successfully transition to college and a career. The purpose of the program is to significantly improve the educational and developmental outcomes of children and youth in our most distressed communities and to transform those communities.  One year planning grants and 3-5 year implementation grants are available.  The deadline for notice of intent to apply is June 8 and the deadline to apply is July 27.
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RESOURCES

For Refugee and Immigrant Youth

  • Us Karen is an illustrated children's book depicting the journey of the Karen people from Burma to Australia where they were resettled.  The story of their journey is identical to those who came to the U.S.  This book may be useful for talking to children about where they came from and for telling others about their journey here.
  • Kindergarten Day USA and China, a picture book for ages four and up, narrates a day at a kindergarten in Schenectady, NY; when flipped, it details a day with Chinese children in Beijing. Although there are some differences between the two classes, the book focuses on illustrating their similarities. (Description from source)  

Cultural Orientation/Integration

  • This Much I Can Tell You: Stories of Courage and Hope from Refugees in Minnesota, from the Minnesota Council of Churches, is a collection of 18 stories told by refugees and asylees from nine different countries who have begun building their lives in Minnesota.  
  • Cornell University's Southeast Asian Program held a Burma/Karen Community Workshop. Notes from the breakout sessions are available and include discussion on challenges and concerns in education, gaps in resettlement services and health, and cultural preservation.  Two videos include children singing songs in Burmese and Karen.

Child Welfare/Families

  • Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) Caseworker's Toolkit for Children in Federal Custody has recently been updated.  It was developed by the Children's Services department of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops / Migration and Refugee Services (USCCB/MRS), in conjunction with Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC). The materials were developed primarily for foster care caseworkers assisting children in the federal custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement / Division of Children's Services (ORR/DCS) (formerly Division of Unaccompanied Children's Services or DUCS), to ensure that SIJS-eligible children receive the assistance and case monitoring they need during the SIJS application process.  
  • Somali Cultural Guide: Building Capacity to Strengthen the Well-Being of Immigrant Families and Their Children: A Prevention Strategy, from the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare, provides important information for child welfare professionals in understanding the culture and environment of Somali immigrant children and families. It focuses on factors identified through research and interviews that are considered common themes relevant to Somali family life for most Somali families. 
  • Raising a Child in a Different Culture, from Raising Children Network, includes personal accounts from parents from Malaysia, Chile and Turkey, focusing on the challenges of raising children in a new country (Australia).  The stories are similar to BRYCS' parenting interviews and are relevant to those in the U.S. 

Early Childhood

Education 

  • Breaking New Ground: Teaching Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE) in U.S. Secondary Schools introduces readers to and engages them in the implementation of an instructional model that has been developed over many years of working with SLIFE.  In addition, authors Andrea DeCapua and Helaine Marshall both have many of their professional development trainings on Slideshare for free.    
  • Watch video interviews on meeting refugees' needs in the classroom.  For the full video interviews of these teachers and other professionals, see Colorin Colorado's Meet the Experts series.   
  • Understanding Acculturation Patterns of Burmese Refugee Children in Utah Public Schools details the acculturation process of the Burmese refugee students, the positive effect motivation has on the pace of acculturation, the impact of unfamiliar technology and language-based misunderstandings on the students' educational performance, the need to develop an individualized career plan for the student upon arrival, and the value of expanding the Burmese refugees' social networks. Though this thesis is fairly long, the "results" and "discussion" sections are well worth the read for busy teachers and service providers.   
  • U.S. Department of Education's 2009-10 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) includes a variety of information, such as student enrollment and educational programs and services data, which are disaggregated by race/ethnicity, sex, limited English proficiency, and disability. This collection includes data from a representative sample of schools and districts, representing 85% of the students in our nation's schools.  The CRDC is a longstanding and important aspect of the Department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) overall strategy for administering and enforcing the civil rights statutes for which it is responsible.

Youth Development

  • Tapping the Potential of Displaced Youth: Guidance for Non-formal Education and Livelihoods Development Policy and Practice, from the Women's Refugee Commission, offers guidance on how to enhance non-formal education and livelihoods development opportunities for displaced youth.  The findings are relevant to those working with refugees overseas as well as those who have been resettled.   
  • Let's Talk: Runaway Prevention Curriculum, from the National Runaway Switchboard, is a free, online curriculum intended to build life skills, increase knowledge about runaway resources and prevention, educate about alternatives to running away, and encourage youth to access and seek help from trusted community members. The curriculum includes a film, promotional materials, a Webinar, an activity kit and Spanish language materials.

Health/Mental Health

Program Development

  • Volunteer Resource Management: What is it and how is it done? includes information for volunteer managers, including recruiting, screening, training, record keeping, and volunteer recognition. Samples volunteer applications and other forms are also available.  
  • Building a Nation of Neighbors, developed by Active Voice in association with BeCause Foundation, is a training module adapted from the documentary Welcome to Shelbyville. The new video module set aims to help organizations build greater understanding between long-time residents and immigrants in the community.
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