San Fernando Valley Refugee Children Center

The San Fernando Valley Refugee Children Center, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation organized and operated exclusively for charitable purposes, specifically to secure legal representation and social services for children and their families who have come to the United States seeking refuge from the violence in their countries of birth. Our center was created to provide a healing embrace and a dignified welcome to migrant children and families who are primarily from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. These children and families have endured a harrowing journey crossing through several country borders often by foot, while hungry and under severe cold or hot weather. Obtaining a visa is an impossible option. During their journey, they may have been victims of organized crime or have witnessed triggering forms of abuse: rape, death, extortion and physical and emotional aggression. These migrant children and families see the United States as their final destination hoping to receive protection from organized crime and violence. They are also confronted with land displacement by foreign oil companies and natural disasters, often caused by global warming. When they finally arrive at a point of entry, they tell officers the reasons they cannot go back home and, thus, would like to seek asylum. Children and families are booked into shelters, and they are provided with an alien registration number to undergo a long and difficult legal process. Many of these children would qualify for an immigration relief if they were provided the right legal representation. After being released from detention centers or shelters, unaccompanied minors are placed with relatives and sponsors, while families who travel together struggle significantly finding housing and resort to sleeping out in the streets until they find transitional housing. This displacement of so many underprivileged children from Central America is a humanitarian crisis. Unfortunately, the challenges faced by migrant minors and their families after being released from detention have exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the present time, our staff, who provide direct service to these children and their families, is composed of seven women of color, some of them migrants themselves, who are fully bilingual in English and Spanish. Since having lived in Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America, they possess a high level of intercultural responsiveness, sensitivity, awareness and cross-cultural communication skills.Our Immigration Legal Services program refers our participants to immigration legal services providers. It also offers general orientations on: Asylum and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJIS), immigration court proceedings, reunification process with children. Beginning August 2022, our center was recognized by the Department of Justice, thus recognition is now allowing us to provide USCIS form preparation and support to our participants. Our Children and Families Program offers enrichment programs for children, youth, and families, along with referrals to community resources, including food, housing, mental health, medical and educational resources. Additionally, it offers music, art and dance classes, a tutoring and mentoring program, and support groups for parents and caregivers, unaccompanied minors, and women. Furthermore, our program provides our families and minors with food, clothing diapers, toiletries, and other essential donations. In 2022, we welcomed One-Hundred Eleven new families to Immmigration Legal Services department and Thirty new families were admitted to Immigration Legal Services department. 154 families with children were served in total, between families enrolled in 2022 and families enrolled in previous years. Twenty Four families with children enrolled in our Children and Familes' Program. Sixty Five of all active participants received support at the Children and Families' Program.Adding the 111 families in ILS with 24 families from our CFP, we received at least 135 indivuals (but each family ranged in size on average from 3 to 6 individuals).