	Immigrant and Refugee Resettlement: Resettlement Practice with Separated and Unaccompanied Children; Transition Services; Immigration, Citizenship and Naturalization Legal Assistance Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

IRR 13: Personnel

Personnel and volunteers with specialized qualifications provide immigrant and resettlement services under the supervision of trained professionals.

IRR 13.01

Personnel working in any part of a service delivery system that offers services to refugee children, are prepared by experience and training to:

recognize obstacles to service delivery based on differences with service recipients;
learn about unique difficulties encountered in a child’s and family’s migration experience;
work with the cultural practices and expectations of the child’s and family’s society of origin;
recognize parents’ customary sources of support, the loss of such support, and any reservations about involvement with public agencies and service providers; and
incorporate approaches that have proven successful in programs serving immigrants, refugees, and, as applicable, unaccompanied and trafficked children and youth.

Research Note: The goal of cross training, to increase communication and knowledge between groups and, thereby, increase effectiveness of service provision, is being advanced through development of local and regional mechanisms that bring together public agencies, services providers, and refugee community based organization representatives, to explain how they are structured, their objectives, needs and resources. To date, the articulated final outcomes of the work have been process oriented, including the practical and immediate benefits of opening lines of communication, generating shared resource material, and creating informal service provider networks with a common incentive to work together, to meet the needs of individuals receiving services.

IRR 13.02

Resettlement and adjustment services and immigration, citizenship, and naturalization assistance, including screening, information and other direct services, are provided by personnel who have experience living in a culture significantly different from their own and/or have received competency based training to:

understand salient factors in the immigration process;
recognize conflicts inherent in acculturation and adaptation; and
acquire a basic knowledge of immigration rules, procedures, and referral mechanisms to help service recipient’s with immigration, citizenship and naturalization problems.

IRR 13.03

Para-professionals who have a background in common with service recipients:

receive consideration as an asset and possible resource;
have a clearly defined job; and
receive the training and supervision necessary to provide a source of encouragement for newcomers and to act as an effective bridge between different cultures.

NA The organization does not employ or invite volunteer paraprofessionals to contribute to service delivery.

IRR 13.04

Foster parents, legal guardians, and adoptive parents receive training to anticipate, prepare for and mitigate distresses of separated and unaccompanied children, including information about:

promising practices for care of children experiencing resettlement and separation from family members;
how to help immigrant and refugee children develop and maintain positive bicultural identities;
resilience and risk factors;
reasons for family separation unrelated to abuse and neglect;
difficulties children may have due to different views or misunderstandings about the role of a new family and feelings of family loyalty; and
differences they may encounter in rearing children due to various ethnic identities and cultural aspects of the children’s backgrounds.

NA The organization does not provide services to children who have legal guardians or adoptive parents, or who are placed with foster parents.

IRR 13.05

Supervisors:

are experienced in resettlement and adjustment services;
can evaluate the ability and readiness of service recipients to cope with a new society;
can mobilize resources to help them in the community; and
have an advanced degree in social work or in a related human service field from an accredited institution.

IRR 13.06

Supervisors know about issues that interfere with developing a professional relationship with immigrant and refugee status individuals and with barriers to service provision for newcomers.

IRR 13.07

Personnel providing immigration, citizenship, and naturalization counseling and representation of aliens before various governmental agencies are appropriately accredited to serve as representatives.

NA The organization does not provide Immigration, Citizenship and Naturalization Legal Assistance Services.

IRR 13.08

Legal and social work professionals are on staff or available through formal consulting arrangements to provide immigration assistance.

IRR 13.09

Immigration legal staff members and providers of legal services obtained through consulting arrangements:

have adequate knowledge, information and experience in immigration law;
meet high standards of ethical and moral conduct; and
have or are seeking accreditation vigorously, unless they are attorneys.

NA The organization does not provide Immigration, Citizenship and Naturalization Legal Assistance Services.

IRR 13.10

Personnel maintain a manageable workload and assignments are made and reviewed regularly with due consideration for:

the qualifications and competencies of direct service personnel and supervisors;
case complexity;
case status, and progress toward achievement of desired outcomes;
whether services are provided by multiple individuals and providers or teams;
relevant cultural and religious factors; and
special assessment, service planning, treatment and legal issues involved in caring for trafficked children and youth, as applicable.

QUICK JUMP TO


	PURPOSE: Immigrants and refugees acquire the cross-cultural information, skills, and social support network needed to gain stability, make a positive personal and social adjustment, maintain family connections and well-being, and achieve educational, economic and civic participation goals.

RELATED FILES


	IMMIGRANT An individual not born in the United States, Puerto Rico, or an outlying US territory, who migrates from his/her country of nationality or any country in which they last habitually resided and chooses to seek a better economic, social or religious life abroad. Immigrants, and children of immigrants, can be citizens, Legal Permanent Residents "a step toward naturalization as a US citizen" or non-citizens, either legal or undocumented without legal status.


	REFUGEE Those who flee their home country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution due to race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion and are unable or unwilling to return to, or avail themselves of, their home country.


	FAMILY Two or more people who consider themselves family and who assume obligations, functions, and responsibilities generally essential to healthy family life. Child care and child socialization, income support, long-term care, and other caregiving are among the functions of family life. The definition of "family" will rest with an individual's indication of who plays a family member role, including current or former foster family, adoptive family, extended family members, fictive kin, or significant others. Organizations that believe family is the central constellation in a child's life, and that family attachments are of primary importance for human development, will strive to work with professional staff to develop a common understanding of "family."


	PERSONNEL The body of employees and/or volunteers that carries out the organization's tasks under the organization's administration and/or supervision. This definition does not include foster parents who are specifically referenced in relevant standards


	VOLUNTEER An individual who performs services for an organization for civic, charitable, or humanitarian reasons, without promise, expectation, or receipt of compensation for services rendered. Such service must be offered freely and without pressure or coercion, direct or implied, from an employer. If the individual is otherwise employed by the same employer for which s/he volunteers, the individual cannot volunteer to perform the same type of services that s/he is paid to perform as an employee.


	SERVICE One or more organization-operated programs or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organization's material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organization that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licensed to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	SUPERVISION Assumption of responsibility for directly overseeing and evaluating the work or work products of personnel within an organization. Also includes inspecting the act or process of accomplishing a function or activity.


	TRAINING Instruction so as to make fit, qualified, or proficient in a skill or body of knowledge.


	SERVICE RECIPIENT The individuals, groups, organizations, or communities that use, receive, or benefit from programs and services. Service recipients can include consumers, patients, family members, legal guardians, advocates, public/private organizations, employers, and purchasers. All are regarded as significant stakeholders served in a variety of agencies and practice settings.


	PRACTICE Established actions or ways of proceeding in the regular performance of organizational duties. Policies and procedures often guide practice.


	PARENTS Parents can include: birth, foster, kinship, and adoptive parents. Please see service standards for more specific information about use of this term.


	PROGRAM A system of services offered by an organization. For example, an organization providing a mental health service may offer several mental health programs to different populations, e.g., a mental health program for adolescent teens. The word "program" can be used interchangeably with the word "service" or to describe specific programs.


	COMMUNITY A specific group of people living in the same locality and who may share a common culture, values, and norms. Communities can also be defined by race, religion, ethnicity, age, occupation, political status, tribal affiliation, interest in particular problems or outcomes, or other common bonds. The term "community" encompasses worksites, schools, tribes, residential neighborhoods, business districts, recreational areas, and health and human service sites.


	OBJECTIVE A sub-goal stated in operational terms, i.e., a statement that makes clear what expected results are to be measured or assessed.


	CULTURE The customs, habits, values, skills, technology, beliefs, and religious, social, and political behaviors of a group of people in a specific period of time.


	FOSTER PARENTS State- or county-licensed adults who provide a temporary home for children whose birth parents are unable to care for them. Foster parents are not considered employees or personnel and are specifically referenced in all relevant standards.


	LEGAL GUARDIAN A person who has legal responsibility for the care and management of a person incapable of administering his/her own affairs. In the case of a minor child, the guardian is charged with the legal responsibility for the care and management of the child and of the minor child's estate.


	Promising Practice Applies to practices that are consistent with theory, practice wisdom, and expert consensus, but whose benefit is empirically supported only by studies that lack the rigor necessary to reasonably rule out the effects of chance or extraneous variables. This term may also apply to the application of a more well-supported practice in an alternative setting or with a different population when that new application is supported only by one or a few small studies.


	ADVANCED DEGREE A degree at the Master's level or beyond from an institution of higher education. An advanced degree does not include a Bachelor's degree, an associate's degree, or an educational certificate.


	SOCIAL WORK Professionally responsible interventions carried out by persons with formal, professional education at the BSW or MSW level from an accredited school of social work and appropriate licensing, certification, and registration credentials. Interventions are directed toward improving the transactions between people and environments to enhance the adaptive capacities of the participants and improve environments for all that function within them. Social work is a professional practice with a consumer group consisting of individuals, families, small groups, organizations, neighborhoods, and communities and involving the disciplined application of knowledge and skill.


	ACCREDITATION The formal evaluation of an organization against accepted criteria or standards. A professional society, non-governmental organization, or a governmental agency may conduct accreditation activities. A COA-accredited organization has undergone a period of rigorous self-study and is capable of providing programs and services that meet or exceed COA standards.


	WORKLOAD The amount of work assigned to or expected from a person within a specified period of time. See also CASELOAD.


	CASE A general term used to designate clients (including individuals, families, and groups) served by an organization for purposes of monitoring the provision of services. A foster care case is generally based on the placement of an individual child, although casework for the child may include services to the child's family. A child protective services case is based on an entire family household if a family assessment model is used; otherwise a case is defined as a child.


	ASSESSMENT An evaluation, which utilizes professional expertise and skills in the collection and analysis of data to understand and describe the nature of service needs of an individual, family, or group. Assessment, as in needs assessment, is also used to determine priorities of program planning and service development for the organization as a whole. See also DIAGNOSIS.


	PLANNING The process of specifying objectives, evaluating the means for their achievement, and exercising deliberate decision making about appropriate courses of action.