Having spent the last several decades working to resettle young refugee children in the Seattle area, nonprofit human services agency Lutheran Community Services Northwest has begun to do the same in Spokane through its Unaccompanied Refugee Minor program. 

Located at 210 W. Sprague, Lutheran Community Services has a total staff of 79 employees, five of whom work in its Unaccompanied Refugee Minor program. 

Refugee foster parent recruiter Lisa Johnson says the agency began laying the groundwork for the program here two years ago, but only just got its first refugee children placed in homes here last July.

“We currently have five refugee youth residing here, three in a group home and a set of siblings residing with a foster family,” says Johnson. “We expect to have at least 30 more placed by September of 2017.”

Though the program is still small, it hopes to hire an independent living case manager and another social worker soon to handle additional refugee youth anticipated this coming year, she says.

The federal government created the first Unaccompanied Refugee Minor program in the 1970s, expanding it over time to also include services for child victims of human trafficking. The program is funded federally by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, but administered by the Washington state Office of Refugee and Immigration Assistance.

Johnson says within the U.S., a total of 23 Unaccompanied Refugee Minor programs currently are operating in 15 states. Spokane and San Diego have been the last two cities within the past eight years to implement an Unaccompanied Refugee Minor program.  

Johnson says Lutheran Community Services models its program here after its sister organization in Seattle, called the Refugee Immigrant and Children’s Program. That program began resettling unaccompanied youth in the 1980s, and currently has 65 youth in its care.

The term “unaccompanied refugee minor” refers to a refugee youth who has been separated from both parents, and who currently isn’t cared for by an adult who by law or custom is responsible to do so. 

Johnson points out there is a big difference between refugees who are unwilling or unable to return to their native county due to persecution, and immigrants who leave their country voluntarily to settle in another. 

 “When a young refugee is found without parents or an adult guardian, they are first taken to a refugee camp,” she says. “There they wait until United Nations officials can determine the best option for their care. That process can take several years. Meanwhile, the conditions at those camps range from good facilities to tents with dirt floors.” 

Refugees who flee their home country, generally seek asylum from another county, which is then referred to as their asylum country.

Johnson says once a refugee has sought asylum in another country, the United Nations steps in, choosing one of three options.  They include repatriation, or returning individuals to their place of origin or citizenship; local integration, which is permanently settling refugees in host communities of first asylum; and resettlement, which is transfer of refugees from an asylum country to another state that has agreed to admit them and allow for permanent settlement. 

She says the United Nation’s first choice is usually repatriation, followed by integration, and lastly resettlement. 

 “Resettlement is usually the last choice, because it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be resettled in that same country where they first sought refuge,” she says. “The child also has to be old enough to make that choice to resettle, and it’s a two- to four-year process to apply and go through a health assessment.” 

The process of resettlement for refugee youth includes completing an application, multiple medical assessments and screenings, as well as legal screening by five separate U.S. entities.

Aimee Shields, foster home licensor for Lutheran Community Services Northwest, says the United States is the only country in the world to offer a resettlement process for refugee youth. 

“Other countries will accept youth accompanied by a parent, but not on their own,” she says. “Although the process for adults is very similar, it can take adults up to 17 years to get through.” 

Shields says this is because there are fewer unaccompanied minor refugees, so it takes less time to process their applications. 

“That being said, even though there are fewer youth refugees than adults, there are still quite a lot.”

Johnson says all refugee youth in the Unaccompanied Refugee Minor program are between the ages of 10 and 12 years old (depending upon the age their asylum country requires for applications of resettlement), have been cleared for resettlement in the U.S., and come from either Central America or various overseas countries. 

 “We’ve found the majority of youth we see coming in are from one of those two areas,” she says. “It really comes down to the issues being faced within those countries at the time. Most youth we see from Central America are trying to escape the drug or sex trafficking industries. Those we see from countries overseas are usually fleeing violence or poverty issues.”

Johnson says that while the category of “overseas” can include almost all other countries, most of the overseas refugees the program is seeing on its lists currently are from Eritrea and Iraq. 

The youth are placed in foster homes, group homes, and semi-independent living arrangements. 

Johnson says individuals or couples wishing to be foster parents must be screened and licensed using the same curriculum as domestic foster parents, with some additional training. Foster parents participating in this program must be at least 21 years old, financially stable, own or rent a home or apartment with adequate space for a child, have a clear background check, and live within 50 miles of Lutheran Community Services Spokane office. 

“Foster parents are licensed just like with domestic foster care, but LCS is still considered the child’s legal guardian,” she says. “With refugee children, there is also more of an emphasis on this being a long-term commitment.”

She says the licensing process is broken down into a series of steps and processes, to make it easier for foster parents to apply. 

“We start with recommending people attend the informational meeting held on the second Tuesday of each month, where the process is explained.”

According to Johnson, that first meeting held at the LCSNW Spokane office, includes the distribution of one of three packets of application materials. She says once the first packet is completed, the rest of the licensing process takes about 90 days to complete.

“I would say one-third of those who attend that first class begin the process of becoming licensed,” she says. “Of those, about half follow through with the rest of the process.” 

Shields says the decision to provide a home for a refugee child is sometimes more difficult than fostering a domestic child, because of the situation. 

“With refugees, there’s a few extra layers of complication, whether it’s a language barrier, or associated trauma,” she says. “It’s just a hard process for some to commit to.” 

For that reason, she says, the program also offers interested foster parents the option of being licensed for respite or short-term care if full-time fostering appears too daunting.

Once the licensing process is complete, parents work with Lutheran Community Services to find a matching child who’s in a refugee camp or detention center waiting for placement. 

Foster families get a stipend and support from a social worker to make sure the child is adjusting. The stipend includes funds for the child’s care, educational support and advocacy, skill development, health care needs, intensive care management, and access to cultural and recreational activities. The nonprofit also meets with foster families weekly for individual support and holds monthly group meetings.

Children are placed with families until age 18, although they continue receive support until age 23. The program also accepts volunteers to fill mentoring, tutoring, and other services, including ride sharing, free legal assistance, job training, and internships.

Johnson says the program currently has three licensed foster families, with another three still working to complete the process. The program also has one licensed group home, Pacific Northwest Helping Hands, and another is expected to be approved in January. 

She says that because of the number of worldwide conflicts, the process of being approved for resettlement typically takes about two years.

“We’re just now starting to get refugees in from conflicts that happened two years ago or more,” she says. “Currently we have a list of about 40 youth each from Central America and overseas.” 

Johnson says she has been a domestic foster parent herself for 12 years now. 

“I adopted my youngest son, Caleb, from foster care at age 5. He’s 15 now,” she says. “I’ve fostered other children from the state over the years, I’m on a hiatus now, but will go back to it in the spring.” 

Shields started at Lutheran Community Services in May of this year. Prior to her current position, she worked as a child welfare social worker for the state. 

“Some of the biggest issues we see for these kids are language and cultural barriers,” she says. “Initially, those can seem difficult, but it’s amazing how quickly these kids and their foster parents begin to learn. Overall, I think it just means a lot to them to have a safe, stable home.”