BRYCS - Empowering Refugees

In light of this week's individual story from Heather, today's resource will be BRYCS! Bridging Refugee Youth and Children’s Services (BRYCS) aims to strengthen the capacity of refugee-serving and mainstream organizations across the U.S. to empower and ensure the successful development of refugee children, youth, and their families.

In providing technical assistance and maintaining the nation’s largest online collection of resources related to refugee and immigrant children and families, BRYCS increases public awareness and facilitates knowledge building, information sharing, & collaboration among a diverse group of service providers, including child welfare, schools, refugee resettlement agencies, and ethnic and community-based organizations.

When agencies collaborate and share information, access and services improve. Refugee parents, youth, and children are thus better supported in their new culture and are better equipped to meet adjustment challenges as they integrate into their new communities and strive towards self-sufficiency and long-term integration.

BRYCS strives to:

• Increase public awareness and encourage community engagement.

• Increase information-sharing and collaboration among refugee-serving and mainstream agencies at the local, state, regional, and national levels resulting in a more coordinated and effective service system.

• Facilitate knowledge building and dissemination for the field of refugee child welfare, building an institutionalized memory for years to come.

• Increase the technical knowledge of staff in order to improve the effectiveness of services.

• Help build capacity for agencies to develop and sustain programs targeted at refugee children, youth, and their families in order to increase the availability of appropriate, quality programming.

• Support and enhance the self-sufficiency of refugee children, youth, and their families by developing and delivering content specifically for refugees and immigrants.

BRYCS has a collection of fantastic articles on many topics such as Schooling, Child Welfare, and Migration & Resettlement Awareness. These articles educate refugees and other interested individuals on extremely important topics in a variety of ways (quantitative data, qualitative data, & even success stories). It also has a Refugee Portal that was created to ensure that refugees have easy access to resources that empower them and ensure their long-term integration. This Refugee Portal connects to BRYCS' Clearinghouse which provides over 8,200 resources for refugees.

Here are images of some of the refugees that BRYCS has helped:

To reach BYRCS' website directly, click here.

To reach the Refugee Portal, click here.

To reach the Clearinghouse, click here.