Refugee foster care program recruiting parents

Inside the offices of Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County, international teenagers and their foster parents gather once a month on a Tuesday night.  The adults greet each other warmly while the teenagers from different countries sit and chat, eating from plates of take-out.  There are new faces the night I visit.  Two sisters just arrived from Burma.

About 35 foster families in the Bay Area participate in the refugee foster program. It’s a federal program coordinated by the U.S. Office of Refugee and Resettlement.  Locally, Catholic Charities and Adopt International recruit families and provide training, case managers and social workers.  The circle of families revolves around children, mostly teenagers who have fled dangerous situations in their home countries, but arrive without parents or guardians.

“They’ve lost their country, they’ve lost their home, they’ve lost their language,” said Coleen Higa, coordinator of the Bay Area program.  “And yet, they’re remarkably resilient. I’m always astounded when I meet some of these kids when they step off the plane, because I’ve read their bio.”  Higa says she'll never get to hear all their remarkable stories in detail.  But there's one that stands out in her mind.  A young woman, 14 or 15, from Central Asia had to journey to the United Nations office for an interview as part of the process in applying for refugee status.  She took the bus by herself into the neighboring country where she did not speak the language.  But she made it to the interview despite financial challenges, as well as the dangers of traveling alone.  Then the U.N. asked her to come back in three days for another interview.  Where would she stay?  How would she live for three days on her own?  All these kids, Higa says, have been through similar circumstances to get refugee status to resettle in the U.S.

Catholic Charities is one of 20 agencies nationwide that contract with the federal government to run the program.  The majority of the teens are refugees, but some are not. They can be victims of sex trafficking who were intercepted by authorities.  They can also enter the U.S., sometimes illegally, and later gain legal status if the immigration court grants them a special juvenile visa or asylum.

I met an 18-year-old asylee from Guatemala named Aracely during the monthly gathering at Catholic Charities. Listen to the interviews of Aracely and her foster mom Liz from their home in San Francisco.

While Aracely is on the path to becoming a U.S. citizen, the federal foster care program will continue to allow her to stay in foster care until their 19th birthday, according to Sergio Medina, the Bay Area program director.  In fact, clients who reach age 19 will receive two years of supportive housing.  The teens in the program can also receive grants for higher education up until their 24th birthday.  This, of course, is drastically different from our county foster care programs, which ends support when the teens become legal adults. That’s not the only difference.  The financial support for families in the federal program is $790 a month, compared to the $627 county average locally, according to Medina.

The foster parents I met at the Catholic Charities gathering were from all different backgrounds, but perhaps from some of the wealthier parts of the Bay Area—Half Moon Bay, Hercules, Concord. They were grandparents, empty nesters, as well as adults who had never raised children.  There are also foster parents who are refugees themselves.

Higa said it tears at her heart when she sees an announcement for a child in need of a home and she doesn’t have a foster family available.  If you’ve seen the ads on the BART, you’d know that the program is recruiting foster parents and trying to increase their capacity to place more children. They’re interested in parents (or would-be parents) that are financially fit and come from counties like Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Mateo, San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa.  If you’re interested, please go to Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County website at www.catholiccharitiesscc.org.