BRYCS What’s New Updates for September 2020

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

• BRYCS illustrated parenting handbooks now available in French! BRYCS Raising Children in a New Country handbooks were created for agencies serving refugees and immigrants in order to support their efforts to ensure that newcomer parents have the basic information they need about U.S. laws and parenting practices. The booklets are broken down by age: early childhood, adolescents, and teenagers. These resources are targeted to newcomer parents and the service providers that help them adjust to American parenting norms and address a number of themes includes family well-being, safety and protection, guidance and discipline, cultural identity and more! Additional translations along with audio recordings and pre/post tests can be found in BRYCS Refugee Portal under Parenting/Family Strengthening.

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EVENTS/CALL FOR PAPERS

• Addressing the Role of Police during Cultural Orientation, a Cultural Orientation Resource Exchange (CORE) webinar, will take place September 8, 2020 at 10AM EST.As a follow-up to the recently released How to Interact with the Police resources, this event will feature guest speakers and an opportunity for Q&A on how to best teach refugees about this topic and engage with law enforcement in local communities.
• Cultural Competence in Refugee Service Settings: What Does the Research Tell Us?, a Switchboard webinar, will take place September 10, 2020 from 2:00-3:15PM ET. This webinar will share the findings of an original literature review on the topic of cultural competence in refugee service settings, highlighting key concepts and approaches described by refugee service providers and organizations. A Q&A session will provide an opportunity to hear the perspectives of practitioners working with refugee and immigrant communities.
• #CreatingHome Together: A #WelcomingWeek Experience, will take place September 12, 2020 at 3PM EDT. Hosted by Welcoming America, join viewers from around the globe for this free event featuring exciting music and dance performances, inspiring personal stories…and more!
• DREAMs Deferred Live!, hosted by the City of Beaverton and St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, will take place on two nights — September 12 and 17, 2020 from 7PM to 8:30PM. The first night of the event will feature five compelling stories told — and lived — by members of the Beaverton immigrant community who made arduous and dangerous journeys across the border to the U.S. The second night will feature a soulful musical performance by Gerardo Calderon and his ensemble, combining vocals, instrumentals, and rhythms of folk musical traditions of Mexico and Central America. This event will be broadcasted live from St. Andrew and will be viewable via Facebook Live, both during and after the event.
• Refugee Communities in Cultural Transition, a STARTTS Online Forum, will take place September 15, 2020 from 10-12PM (please note the time zone when registering). The theme is “Sharing our Stories, Showcasing our Successes”. The forum will enable you to participate, connect and engage with stories from refugee communities in Australia. There will be a number of community speakers who will be making presentations about their experiences prior to coming to Australia and their settlement here.
• The Health of Refugees and Migrants: Ensuring Accessibility, Promoting Health, and Saving Lives, an e-Learning course, will take place October 19-23, 2020. The course is comprised of an offline introductory module and five online modules which cover the core topics of refugee and migrant health, the context of universal health coverage and the health security and healthier refugee and migrant populations in alignment with the WHO triple billion goals and the Global Action Plan ‘Promoting the Health of Refugees and Migrants’. Participants will have the opportunity to be connected live to health and migration projects implemented on the ground and receive direct feedback by actors dealing with field operations. Apply by September 15, 2020.
• Healing through Connection: Cultural Practices for Families and Communities Moving beyond Trauma, an Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence (API-GBV) webinar, will take place September 17, 2020 at 1PM PDT. Presenters from Honolulu’s Domestic Violence Action Center (DVAC) will share practices that help survivors feel heard, connected, and in control of their healing. They will discuss what culturally-specific services look like in the multi-cultural communities DVAC engages, and how a trauma-informed lens is interwoven with the cultural values reflected in these communities.
• The 17th annual Immigration Law and Policy Conference hosted by MPI, CLINIC, & Georgetown Law will be held September 21-22, 2020. This annual conference features thoughtful policy and legal analysis and discussion of the most important immigration topics from leading government officials, attorneys, researchers, advocates, and others.
• FFTA’s 34^th Annual Conference on Treatment Family Care will take place virtually on September 23-24, 2020. Gather with like-minded professionals from across the world to share strategies to help your agency respond to the changing needs of children, youth and families and build on the best practices in family focused treatment services.
• Self-care, Transference and Countertransference in Working with People from Refugee Backgrounds, a STARTTS webinar, will take place September 25, 2020 from 9:30AM-1:30PM (please note the time zone when registering). This half day workshop will explore the complex dynamics and the impacts of working with people traumatised by refugee experiences, and how the worker can practically recognise and self-manage their stress, feelings of countertransference, vicarious trauma and burnout. Participants will leave the workshop feeling empowered to take care of themselves in their professional and personal lives.
• The 2020 Catholic Immigrant Integration Initiative Conference, hosted by the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) and the University of Notre Dame, will take place virtually on October 1-2, 2020. The conference will present perspectives on the major challenges facing immigrants, refugees, their families and faith communities, at a time of multiple crises; explore promising and successful programs and ministries; examine how changing policies are affecting Catholic institutions; and explore how Catholic institutions can strengthen their work in promoting the integration, protection, and empowerment of persons with strong roots in sending and receiving communities.
• “Migration Research, Scholarship, and Policy at a Time of Multiple Crises,” The Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) 2020 Academic and Policy Symposium, will take place virtually November 10, 2020. This year’s event will examine migration scholarship and policy at a time of multiple crises for migrants, refugees and their communities. In particular, it will: explore the COVID-19 pandemic, analyze other relevant crises including systemic racial injustice, the ravages of climate change, rising exclusionary nationalism, and the crisis in refugee protection and migration governance, and present how policy-makers and advocates have and should respond to these overlapping crises that shape migration dynamics and what strategies are effective in this context.
• Welcoming Interactive 2020: Inclusive Communities, Strong Economies has been rescheduled due to COVID. The even will now take place April 21-23, 2021 in Charlotte, North Carolina. To keep the movement connected and inspired in 2020, Welcoming America will host a series of learning and networking events as part of Welcoming Interactive this fall.

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FUNDING

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RESOURCES

For Refugee/Immigrant Children & Youth

• Two White Rabbits is told through a child’s eyes as she and her father travel north toward the U.S. border. They travel mostly on the roof of a train known as The Beast, but the little girl doesn’t know where they are going. She counts the animals by the road, the clouds in the sky, the stars. Sometimes she sees soldiers. She sleeps, dreaming that she is always on the move, although sometimes they are forced to stop and her father has to earn more money before they can continue their journey. As many thousands of people, especially children, in Mexico and Central America continue to make the arduous journey to the U.S. border in search of a better life, this is an important book that shows a young migrant’s perspective. Recommended for grades PreK-2. (Description from source)

  General Cultural Competency & Migration & Resettlement Awareness

• Southeast Asian American Journeys: A National Snapshot of Our Communities, from the The Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC), captured key disaggregated data for SEAA refugee communities who fled the trauma of war and violence following the Vietnam War, Khmer Rouge genocide, and bombings in Laos to seek haven in the United States 45 years ago. This comprehensive national report also featured statewide profiles, as well as individual refugee and resettlement narratives.

Cultural Orientation/Integration

• How to interact with the Police in the U.S.,  resources from the Cultural Orientation Resource Exchange (CORE), recognize that refugees come to the U.S. with varying experiences and perceptions of law enforcement. These resources are meant to help refugees navigate police interactions in their new communities and are available as an animated video, factsheet, and podcast. The factsheet includes a printable card refugees can carry and hand to police that lists their refugee status, interpretation needs, and any relevant medical conditions. All versions are translated into Arabic, Burmese, Dari, Kinyarwanda, Russian, and Swahili. A supplemental lesson plan, “Public Safety and Police Interactions”, gives Cultural Orientation providers guidance on navigating discussions and delivering key messages to refugees on the role of police in the United States and how to interact with law enforcement in their communities. It includes scenario-based learning, guidance for guest speakers, and external resources for further guidance.
• The Merits of a Skill-Based Resume for Refugee Clients, from Higher, addresses how to write resumes for refugees with significant gaps in employment.
• Enhancing the Social and Economic Inclusion of Refugees through Local Development Strategies, an archived webinar from Migration Policy Institute (MPI), explores how development actors can work with local authorities to enhance the social and economic inclusion of refugees and suggest that improvements for refugees often start at the local level, where general principles agreed upon in international fora are being tested.

Child Welfare/Family Strengthening

• The Journey of an Unaccompanied Minor, a video from Bethany Christian Services, offers insight into the long, tedious, and often frightening journeys of unaccompanied minors and how Bethany works to quickly and safely reunify these children with their family members.
• Technical Note on the Protection of Children during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Children and Alternative Care, from the Better Care Network, aims to support child protection practitioners and government officials in their immediate response to the child protection concerns faced by children who are at risk of separation or in alternative care during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• What the Girls Say: Improving Practices for the Demobilisation and Reintegration of Girls Associated with Armed Forces and Armed Groups in Democratic Republic of Congo, from Child Soldiers International, presents the findings of research to assess the effectiveness of release, psychosocial recovery and reintegration interventions (commonly referred to as ‘DDR’) for girls associated with armed groups in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Early Childhood

• Creating Anti-Racist Early Childhood Spaces, an archived webinar from the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations, presents strategies for creating an anti-racist environment to promote the development of healthy racial identities.
• Wearing Masks, a scripted story from the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations,  helps to explain to children the how, why, and when of wearing face masks. Available in English and Spanish.

Education

• As a new school year begins, it is good to be reminded that public schools, by law, must serve all children regardless of immigration status. Visit the Intercultural Development Research Association’s (IDRA), Education of Immigrant Children webpage for resources, including a copy of the letter from the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education, as well as IDRA’s bilingual infographic: Welcoming Immigrant Students in School. Finally, IDRA and the Consulate General of Mexico in San Antonio have partnered to create a number of videos to help Mexican and Mexican American families navigate the U.S. education system and learn about important educational opportunities in both countries.
• Multilingual Tutorials on Zoom and Other Online Platforms, a Switchboard resource roundup, includes multilingual materials that may be helpful in navigating virtual learning with newcomer students and their families.
• FGM/C in the Classroom: The Importance of Nationwide Education as a Tool for Prevention, an archived webinar from Sahiyo, the Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation, and The Council of the Great City Schools, discusses FGM/C, debunks common misconceptions, and explores the use of nationwide classroom education as a tool for FGM/C prevention.
• “Forced Migrant Children in the Classroom: Perspectives from Educators, Families and Program Managers,” a chapter in Resilience in Schools: Research and Practice, stresses the importance of understanding the educational needs of forced migrant students and their families, and the educators who work with them by exploring the subjective perspectives of various stakeholders involved in the education of forced migrant children once resettled. The study occurred over three years and four countries, the United States, Iceland, Germany, and Switzerland. The forced migrants were from Somalia, Syria, Bhutan, Iraq, Iran,

Health/Mental Health

• COVID-19 Mental Health Resources in Multiple Languages, a resource list compiled by The Center for Victims of Torture (CVT), aims to help U.S. refugees and immigrants cope with the stress and hardships of the COVID crisis.  It is designed so that non-English speakers can directly access the information they want and need without the aid of an English-speaker.  Mental health guidance is available in Spanish, French, Arabic, Russian, Chinese, Swahili, Burmese and other languages. Topics include how to manage stress, cope with isolation, comfort children, and identify signs of anxiety and depression that might require additional attention.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has the following updated guidance and new resources to assist Resettlement Agencies, Resettlement Support Centers, and community partners:Additional COVID-19 resources to support Cultural Orientation providers and other staff can also be found on the CORE website.

• • Updated Travel Recommendations by Destination: This webpage will help you understand the health risks in the countries refugees are departing from.
  • Recommendations for inbound travelers, including refugees
  • Welcome Booklet for Refugees: Provides an overview of COVID-19, how to protect yourself, and how to take your temperature. Currently available in English and will be translated into additional languages soon.
  • Pre-departure one-pager: For refugees who are at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19. Available in multiple refugee languages.
• “Assessing the Impact of Artistic and Cultural Activities on the Health and Well-being of Forcibly Displaced People Using Participatory Action Research”, from BMJ Open, draws on a growing body of research suggesting that taking part in artistic and cultural activities benefits health and well-being, the objective was to develop a participatory action research (PAR) method for assessing the impact of arts interventions on forcibly displaced people, and identify themes concerning perceived benefits of such programmes. (Description from source)

Anti-Trafficking

• Trafficking in Persons Report 2020, from the U.S. Department of State, reinforces global anti-trafficking norms and ideals and ranks governments’ efforts to combat trafficking in persons.
• Out at Sea, Out of Sight: Southeast Asian Fishermen on Taiwanese Fishing Vessels, from the Scalabrini Migration Center in the Philippines (SMC), is based on a series of interviews with migrant fishermen and identifies significant gaps in protection and elements of human trafficking.  SMC’s second report, Sowing Hope: Agriculture as an Alternative to Migration for Young Filipinos?, explores programs that seek to make agriculture a viable career for young adults in the Philippines, who might otherwise emigrate. The report found that Filipinos would be more likely to make agriculture their livelihood, if they viewed it as profitable, well-supported, modern and a socially valuable career.

Program Development

• Using Data to Tell Program Stories…Without Putting Your Audience to Sleep, a Switchboard blog, offers a few ideas for using data purposefully while working to tell clients’ stories.