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What's New
- The Justice Department recently issued a letter to chief justices and administrators of state courts clarifying the obligation of courts that receive federal financial assistance to provide oral interpretation, written translation and other language services to people who are limited English proficient (LEP). (Description from source).
- People to People International’s School and Classroom Program will connect teachers and their students with classes in other countries for pen pal exchanges and projects that improve cultural understanding and encourage friendship. Registration is now open!
- Human Trafficking and Exploitation of Children and Youth in the United States will take place September 22-23, 2010 in Chicago, IL. This conference is an opportunity to learn best practices, research, and scholarship on this issue, and stimulate ongoing work and partnerships in the field to protect the rights of children impacted by human trafficking and exploitation. (Description from source).
- One World, One Family, Many Cultures: Strengthening Children and Families Affected by Personal, Intra-Familial, and Global Conflict, sponsored by the International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN), will take place September 26-29, 2010 in Hawaii. The conference will bring together service providers and advocates to discuss family-strengthening for those impacted by various avenues of conflict. Among the five sub-themes of the conference are “Cultural Perspectives in Strengthening Families and Protecting Children” and “Impact of Armed Conflict on Families and Children”.
- The 2nd annual National Immigrant Integration Conference will take place on September 29-October 1,2010 in Boston, MA. This conference will include over twenty workshops where professionals can share promising practices, provide timely updates on current developments in the field, and reinforce existing networks and work together to impact the advancement of immigrant integration policies and practices.
- Migration to Integration: An Opportunity Agenda for Cities will take place October 3-4, 2010 in the Hague, Netherlands. The first International Cities of Migration Conference will engage international city leaders, migration experts and local practitioners in a practical dialogue on this essential dimension of city prosperity and growth.
- 2010 National Refugee and Immigrant Conference: Issues and Innovations will be held October 7-8 in Chicago, Illinois. The aim of this national 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 one another. BRYCS will be facilitating a session on “The Refugee School Impact Program: Lessons Learned from Grantees” and we hope to see you there!
- "Separating Difference and Disability Within Identification and Instruction for SEL, ELL, and LEP Students With Diverse Learning and Behavior Needs" is a four-week online course taking place October 25–November 21. This workshop highlights specific intervention and identification strategies that are most effective in separating difference from disability within English language learner and other education programs serving these populations.
- Fractured Families: The Causes and Consequences of Children Separated from their Families Across Borders, a conference co-sponsored by International Social Services (ISS-USA) and the University of Maryland School of Social Work, will take place November 4-5 in Baltimore, Maryland. This national conference, now in its third year, will examine the ways in which families become fractured, including international adoption and immigration enforcement, among others.
- The KaBOOM! Play Day Program is offering five Play Day grants to further improve your play space whether it be a local park, school, or playground. All you have to do is register your upcoming play day and incorporate an improvement project. Play days must take place between September 18-26, so register now.
- The Target Corporation is now accepting applications for its Target Field Trip Grants program. Five thousand grants of $700 each will be awarded to schools for the upcoming school year. The deadline to apply is September 30.
- People’s Garden School Pilot Program aims to teach students about agriculture production practices, diet and nutrition; contribute produce to supplement food provided at eligible schools, student households, local food banks or senior center nutrition programs; and conduct an evaluation of funded projects to learn more about the impacts of school gardens. The deadline to apply is October 8.
- HHS recently announced the availability of Health Center New Access Point Grants which aim to improve the health of underserved communities and vulnerable populations by assuring access to comprehensive, culturally competent, quality primary health care services. Organizations eligible to compete include public or nonprofit private entities, including tribal, faith-based and community-based organizations who meet health center funding requirements. The deadline to apply is November 17.
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RESOURCES
For Refugee and Immigrant Youth
- Abeba Goes to Bed teaches children about Ethiopian family life and connecting to their culture and heritage during the bedtime routine. This children’s book is available in English, French, Amharic, and German.
- Our Grandparents: A Global Album is a colorful children’s book that shows the relationships of grandparents and their grandchildren from around the world. Grandparents help bridge the present with the past and have an instrumental role in the lives of their grandchildren.
Cultural Orientation/Integration
- A People’s History of the Hmong explores the rich community and culture of the Hmong people, their cultural practices, and their experiences in war and refugee camps, and their struggles and successes integrating into a new country.
- When You Become 18: A Survival Guide for Teenagers addresses a number of issues important to young adults, including information about laws related to: drugs and alcohol, crimes and consequences, insurance and identity protection, financial matters, rental agreements, employment and taxes, and citizenship duties. Though the guide’s English is a bit complex for newly-arrived refugee and immigrant youth, it may be useful as a “checklist” of topics to cover during cultural orientation for youth provided by resettlement agencies or schools. The guide is also available in Spanish.
Child Welfare
- CASA recently posted a two-part podcast titled Advocating for Immigrant Youth. BRYCS Consultant, Susan Schmidt, gives an overview of Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) and discusses why it is important for volunteer advocates to be familiar with SIJS and the issues immigrant family members might encounter when adjusting to their new country.
- Children of Immigrants in the U.S. Child Welfare System examines recent research from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW), which states that children of immigrants represent 8.6% of all children who come to the attention of the child welfare system. (Description from source).
- Public Benefits and Child Welfare Financing, part of a series of reports entitled Caught Between Systems: The Intersection of Immigration and Child Welfare Policies, provides an overview of public benefits, placement, and financing issues that impact immigrant families within the child welfare system.
- The Better Care Network Toolkit was developed to meet the needs of social work and child care practitioners and policy makers around the world in planning and providing better care for children – including family strengthening and out of home placement. The toolkit includes practical tools on how to prevent unnecessary family separation and support families and communities to develop better care alternatives when separation is inevitable.
Education
- The Migration Policy Institute recently launched their English Language Learner (ELL) Information Center with videos, fact sheets and other data that trace the rapid growth of ELL students, native-born and immigrant, as well as their performance on standardized tests. The data offerings are national as well as state-by-state.
- Huddled Mass or Second Class: Challenging Anti-Immigrant Bias in the U.S. helps students from elementary through high school to build empathy and understanding for the experiences of immigrants, appreciate the integral role that immigrants have always played in U.S. life, heighten their awareness about the negative effects of anti-immigrant bias and challenge discrimination on personal and institutional levels. (Description from source).
- Handbook of Bullying in Schools: An International Perspective provides a comprehensive review and analysis of what is known about the worldwide bullying phenomena. It is the first volume to systematically review and integrate what is known about how cultural and regional issues affect bullying behavior and its prevention. Chapters deal with bullying assessment, prevention, and intervention efforts domestically and internationally and include practical applications of the foregoing research.
- The 2010-2011 Federal Student Aid Book is now available. Those working with foreign-born students may wish to check out Chapter 2 on Citizenship for clarification on which noncitizens are eligible for aid and how the student’s FAFSA information is matched with citizenship records.
Youth Development
- The Issues and Assets of African Youth on Staten Island’s North Shore: A Community Assessment Report presents the findings of a community assessment, which sought to better understand the situation of African youth living in Staten Island’s North Shore in order to improve the community’s capacity to empower African youth, including increasing cooperation and coordination among community-based organizations.
- Narrating our World: NOW Program - Using visual tools for understanding the stories and lives of refugee young people explores an arts based program, based in Australia, devised to elicit visual responses from refugee young people in order to understand how they interpret and live in their world. This publication is intended to assist youth workers, teachers, school counselors, and others working with refugee young people.
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The Youth Connections Community of Practice is a communication vehicle for practitioners in the youth employment field to discuss and share promising practices, offer technical assistance, and to network.
Health/Mental Health
- The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools recently posted a new report titled Comparative Case Study of Caring Across Communities: Identifying Essential Components of Comprehensive School-Linked Mental Health Services for Refugee and Immigrant Children. The report is an evaluation of the three-year Caring across Communities grant program and explores the challenges experienced by the children and families the CAC programs served; the necessary components of comprehensive mental health services for refugee and immigrant children; and how partnerships between schools and multiple community agencies can work collaboratively to implement the necessary components of comprehensive mental health services.
- Better Communication, Better Care: Provider Tools to Care for Diverse Populations is a guide that gives guidance on how to provide services to diverse clients in a respectful, culturally universal manner that inspires trust. Service providers working with children may be interested in the section on “Cultural Background: Information on Specific Topics,” which includes information on how pregnancy, breastfeeding, infant health, abuse, and other topics are viewed by particular cultures.
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The federal government recently launched HealthCare.gov to connect all types of health care consumers with information and resources to help them find care. The site allows users to tailor their search by state, age, and other factors to find information specific to their needs. It also contains information on the new health reform laws and implementation dates, patients’ rights, tips for preventative health, and quality of care comparisons for hospitals.
Program Development
- Cutting Costs, Keeping Quality: Financing Strategies for Youth-Serving Organizations in a Difficult Economy highlights financing strategies that successful youth-serving organizations are using to maintain quality services despite difficult economic times. It illustrates how organizations have aggressively managed costs, creatively generated new revenues and support, and created partnerships to mitigate the effects of funding cuts. In-depth examples help leaders understand how to implement and adapt these strategies to their unique context.
- Using Institute of Museum and Library Services Grants to Support Out-of-School Time Programs explains how Out-of-school time programs give many youth the chance to engage in interesting and enriching opportunities in the arts. This funding note describes funding opportunities that can help out-of-school time programs offer an array of arts and cultural programming by drawing on the resources of museums and libraries.