BRYCS was formed in 2001 as a collaboration between the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops/Migration and Refugee Services (USCCB/MRS) and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), who have partnered for over 35 years in our work on behalf of refugee children and families. In 2006, BRYCS became a project of USCCB/MRS.
From 2001-2018, BRYCS served as the Federal Office of Refugee Resettlement’s (ORR) national technical assistance provider on refugee child welfare. Serving as a bridge between service providers aiding refugees and public child welfare professionals in the United States, BRYCS became an invaluable informational resource in the areas of child welfare, family strengthening, education, youth development, early childhood, and refugee populations in general.
During this time, BRYCS conducted national needs assessments, cross-service trainings and roundtable discussions; presented workshops at hundreds of conferences; consulted on numerous complex cases; implemented a child welfare training program for the over 50 programs funded by ORR’s Division of Unaccompanied Children’s Services; and responded to thousands of technical assistance requests from refugee resettlement agencies, mainstream services agencies, such as child welfare, juvenile justice, and schools (including ORR’s Refugee School Impact Grant (RSIG) recipients), and ethnic-community based organizations.
In 2009, the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) honored BRYCS in with their Award for the Advancement of Cultural Competency in Child Maltreatment Prevention and Intervention.
Today, BRYCS maintains the nation’s largest online collection of resources related to refugee and immigrant children and families. BRYCS Web site and Clearinghouse:
- Contains more than 7,500 reviewed and catalogued resources on migration, child welfare, family strengthening, education, youth development, early childhood, and refugee populations in general
- Helps to ensure a safe and caring environment for children and youth through a Child Maltreatment Prevention Curriculum and a variety of online training modules and Webinars
- Fills informational gaps with more than 100 self-authored resources, including Toolkits on 1) Parenting; 2) Positive Youth Development; 3) Child Care; 4) Child Welfare; and 5) Schools
- Includes a database of Promising Practices documenting successful initiatives nation-wide
- Offers a first-hand look at parenting in a new country through published interviews with refugee parents
- Maintains an online refugee portal with the best multilingual resources in the most common refugee languages
- Keeps you up-to-date on the latest resources with a monthly “What’s New” column and bulletin alert direct to your email
