The Social Service Context for Refugee Families

The Existing Service Disconnect

As the United States diversifies, social service work becomes more complex. Child welfare and other mainstream social service workers increasingly come into contact with different refugee groups, as well as other newcomers to the U.S.

Refugee groups in the U.S. represent a wide range of languages, cultures, traditions, countries of origin – and thus both strengths and challenges – which may be new to social service workers here. Such workers may need to scramble for resources, amid many other responsibilities, in order to understand and provide responsible services.

Over a third of refugees that arrive in the United States are children, yet even resettlement, refugee community and other refugee-serving agencies are challenged when problems or difficult family dynamics arise. Funding and service periods do not always cover their efforts, as such problems often occur after families have been in the U.S. for some time.

It is in this environment that child welfare, refugee-serving, refugee community and other social service agencies interface with each other – sometimes for the first time, without the benefit of understanding the strengths, responsibilities and limitations of the other service providers involved.

Refugee youth, children and parents are likely to experience such efforts as fragmented and confusing.

Over 25 Years of Recreating the Wheel

When BRYCS was formed in 2001, we began studying the information and assistance needs of refugee service providers regarding refugee youth and child welfare, as well as the needs of child welfare agencies encountering refugees in their work.

A BRYCS project in three locations across the U.S., called Community Conversations, demonstrated the disconnect between service providers. Importantly, BRYCS staff also noticed that this lack of mutual understanding represents a pattern that has been in place for 25 years – almost a generation – requiring service providers to constantly recreate the wheel.

Refugee families – although diverse in language, culture, and country of origin – share some of the same family difficulties and service needs as they adjust to a new life in the U.S. However, it appears that each newly arriving group faces a similar learning curve in understanding the differences in how parents, youth and children adjust, as well as how to strengthen families so that the needs of all members are met.

Likewise, resettlement, refugee community and other refugee-serving organizations face ongoing information, resource, funding and other constraints regarding child and family issues. As a result of staff turn-over and a current absence of institutional memory on refugee family issues, such agencies often find themselves starting from scratch when developing programs, for example, to support parents in the difficult task of raising children in a new culture.

Child welfare and other social service agencies are even more removed from trends in refugee arrivals and the realities of refugee adjustment. In working with refugee families, they are also recreating the wheel. Child welfare workers around the country struggle without the institutional supports and resources developed by their counterparts in other locations. The responsibility for developing cultural competence in working with diverse client groups often devolves to front-line workers. Unfortunately, such workers often lack the means to maintain and share information widely with other workers in their own agency, outside their agency, or in other communities across the country.

The BRYCS Response

BRYCS works, through a variety of technical assistance efforts, to build collaboration and information-sharing among service providers, in order to strengthen services.

Our technical assistance activities include a clearinghouse, consultation, pilot sites, resource development projects, and training and presentations. For details on our activities, view the technical assistance portion of this site.

Through this integrated response, BRYCS supports the valuable activities of service providers who work with refugee youth, children and families. When agencies collaborate and share information, services improve. Refugee parents, youth and children are thus better supported in their new culture, and are better equipped to meet adjustment challenges as they transition into their new communities.