This information sheet contains suggestions for meeting the special needs of refugee children in out-of-home care; that is, ways to help them draw on their culture, language, ethnic tradition, and religious faith as supportive and protective factors while they adjust to a new life in the United States. Although most of the information contained in this information sheet applies to minors of all ages, most children in the specialized refugee foster care system funded by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) are adolescents. The term “youth” is used for instances that apply more to adolescents than to children. The phrase “bicultural staff” is used loosely to refer to staff of the same ethnic group or country of origin as the children in care as well as those who share some facet of the culture, language, or religion of a refugee group. Most bicultural staff have personal experience adjusting to a new culture and draw on that experience in helping refugee children do the same. Similarly, for brevity the term “refugee foster families” refers to foster families in which the parents are refugees or other foreign-born persons, such as asylees or immigrants.”
