The best way for me to describe my capacity to work with refugee children is to describe the work I have done in the past.
Job Developer
My first job with refugees, from 1985 to 1986, was as a Job Developer for newly-arriving refugee adults in the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey. Migration and Refugee Services, an afiliate of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), hired me to do this work for one year, before I relocated to Minnesota.
Social Worker
In 1987, the State of Minnesota was resettling large numbers of unaccompanied refugee minors for placement into foster families. I worked as a Social Worker for the Unaccompanied Minors Program (UMP) at Lutheran Social Service (LSS), providing direct casework and counselling for refugee youth from Vietnam, Cambodia, Iran, Eritrea and Ethiopia. I also recruited, licensed, trained and monitored culturally sensitive family foster homes for refugee youth. I planned and implemented Independent Living Skills summer camps and developed and facilitated a Vietnamese Amerasian support group. Finally, I planned and carried out culturally appropriate celebrations and educational experiences for foster families and their children.
Supervisor
In 1991, I was promoted to Supervisor of the UMP. In addition to the above responsibilities, I supervised and evaluated four Masters-level Social Workers. I was also the Field Instructor for two Masters-level Social Work student interns. I was an agency Diversity Trainer and coordinated staff training programs. I continued to provided direct casework and counselling services to refugee youth and also provided foster care for Chinese minors seeking asylum in the U.S., under contract with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).
Program Director
In 1996, I was promoted to Director of the UMP. In this role, my responsibilities again expanded. In addition to working with refugee youth and foster families and supervising five staff and two student interns, I directed four other Intensive Transitional Programs for youth. I acheived an 80% success rate for the grants I wrote. I negotiated contracts, created budgets and contained costs for program budgets totalling over 1 million US dollars.
International Supervision
Sensing a need for a geographic expansion of my work, I left the UMP to go to Tirana, Albania in June of 1999. There, employed by the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), I supervised 20 Albanian Social Workers who were providing emergency social services to Kosovar Albanian families and children who escaped the war in Kosovo and became refugees in Albania.
Best Interest Determination Interviewer
Later that year, I accepted a position as a deployee with ICMC and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). I interviewed Sudanese youth (commonly referred to as the "Lost Boys") in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Northern Kenya. I performed Best Interest Determinations (BID) which helped to decide which of the three durable solutions was the best for each individual, preventing further languishing in the refugee camp. Many of the youth I interviewed were later cleared for resettlement to the United States. I returned again to Kakuma, for the same purpose, in the Summer of 2000.
Refugee Children Care Consultant
In November of 2001, I accepted a consultancy with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) in collaboration with UNHCR, to perform two site visits to assess UNHCR and implementing partners' care arrangements for unaccompanied and separated refugee youth. In both Tanzania and South Africa, I compiled key policy guidelines, identified best practices and made concrete recommendations to UNHCR about how services to these refugee youth could be improved or expanded.
Revisiting the same project in January of 2007, I interviewed 20 international experts in the field of refugee child protection to assess the implementation of the Best Interest Determination guidelines developed by UNHCR and it's implementing partners.
Child Protection Adviser
As a result of the earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004, I was hired by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) as a Child Protection Adviser. I spent two months (Jan - Feb) of 2005 in Banda Aceh, Indonesia assessing the needs of the unaccompanied, separated and orphaned children there. I worked closely with UNICEF and NGO’s in Child Protection, Tracing, Psychosocial and Trafficking working groups.
Lead Staff of Verification Exercise
From December 2005 to February 2006, I supervised 31 Bangladeshi staff in the verification of 29,000 Myanmar Rohingya refugees in Nayapara and Kutupalong refugee camps in Southern Bangladesh. Myself and my assistant from Turkey were seconded from ICMC to UNHCR to run this exercise.
Current Refugee Work
I am a deployee for the UNHCR-ICMC Resettlement Deployment Scheme. For more details about this program, see this page.
Current Areas of Interest
My committment to refugee families, children and youth is still strong and I am available for further service in the following areas:
- unaccompanied and separated children
- best interest determinations
- staff training in child welfare practices
- staff training in psychosocial practices
- staff supervision and performance appraisal
- child protection services
Check my professional credentials here.
Questions
If you have questions about my work with refugee children and youth, or are interested in my services, please email me. References are available.
