June 2013Vol. 14, No. 5Bridging Refugee Youth and Children's Services
The Office of Refugee Resettlement within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provides resources to assist new populations integrating into American society. One such resource is the Bridging Refugee Youth and Children's Services (BRYCS) technical assistance center for refugee child welfare. True to its name, BRYCS is a bridge between service providers working with the refugee and immigrant communities and public child welfare professionals. The technical assistance center maintains a Clearinghouse with more than 4,000 resources, while also assisting social service agencies and workers who serve refugee and immigrant children and families by providing trainings, conference presentations, and publications.
BRYCS' training and technical assistance is focused on child welfare, strengthening families, youth development, and schools. Since 2003, the organization has gathered promising practices from across the nation, building a comprehensive database of materials that span a wide range of topics, refugee groups, and practice approaches. Among BRYCS' many toolkits, training materials, and publications are:
- Guardianship Toolkit, which is aimed at helping those serving refugee caregivers of nonbiological children. Among other resources, the toolkit includes Guardianship Fact Sheet: For Staff Assisting Refugee Families, which provides information for helping refugee families understand and establish legal guardianship:
http://www.brycs.org/guardianship/upload/guardianship-fact-sheet.pdf - Refugee Portal, which provides a variety of resources in languages most commonly spoken by refugee families in the U.S., including Spanish, Arabic, Burmese, Karen, Nepali, and Somali. Resources span such topics as family life and parenting, early childhood, the United States school system, and health and mental health:
http://www.brycs.org/refugee-portal/index.cfm - Child Welfare Training Curricula for Staff Working With Refugees and Immigrants, which includes courses on engaging Latino families, planning and implementing cross-service training, and culturally appropriate child abuse intervention strategies, and cultural resources for practitioners:
http://www.brycs.org/clearinghouse/Highlighted-Resources-Child-Welfare-Training-Curricula-for-Staff-Working-with-Refugees-and-Immigrants.cfm
For these resources and much more, visit the BRYCS website: