Lutheran Community Services Northwest’s Unaccompanied Refugee Minor program, which helps to resettle refugee youth who have been separated from parents or guardians, has grown again recently. 

Refugee foster parent recruiter Lisa Johnson says since October the program has brought an additional 12 refugee youth to the area, obtained new group home placement options, and added three new staff members.

“We’ve been growing in some new and exciting ways,” she says. “This past October, we had five refugee youth residing here. Now we have 17 and anticipate three more in the coming months.”

The Unaccompanied Refugee Minor program is managed through local nonprofit human services agency Lutheran Community Services, located at 210 W. Sprague. The program is funded federally by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, but administered by the Washington state Office of Refugee and Immigration Assistance.

All refugee youth in the program are between the ages of 10 and 12 years old and have been cleared for resettlement in the U.S. 

Youth in the program are placed in foster homes, group homes, and semi-independent living arrangements. The program also accepts volunteers to fill mentoring, tutoring, and other services, including ride sharing, free legal assistance, job training, and internships.

Johnson says the agency placed its first group of refugee children in homes here in July 2016.

“Our original goal was to have at least 30 youth refugees placed by September of 2017, and I’m betting we’ll be close to that,” she says. “Our goal for the next year would likely be to have a total of 40 youth placed in area homes.” 

She says nine of the program’s current refugees reside in group homes, while the remaining eight are in foster homes. 

She says seven of the youth are from Central American countries, while the remaining then 10 are from overseas nations like Afghanistan, the Dominican Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, and Eritrea.

Johnson says the program currently has 18 licensed foster families and two group homes options for refugee placements. Both group homes are managed by Pacific Northwest Helping Hands, a Spokane Valley-based organization specializing in group care and behavioral rehabilitation services that collaborates with the UMR program on refugee placements. 

“We added our most recent group home to the program this spring and hope to add a third group home later this summer or early in the fall,” Johnson says.

She adds that the decision to add more group homes was part of matching the needs of refugees with the desires of the Spokane community. 

“We were seeing a lot of families that wanted to get involved, but didn’t necessarily want to commit to having a youth live in their home,” she says. “Adding more group homes gives them the chance to live here and begin to assimilate before being matched with the right family.”  

Johnson says the Unaccompanied Refugee Minor program has a total staff of nine, including its three new hires: Peter Huss, Kristy Bailey, and Alyssa Brudnicki. 

Huss, who was hired in May, holds a master’s degree in social work from Boise State University. Having completed an internship with World Relief Spokane, Huss worked with Lutheran Community Services as a therapeutic aide before being hired as the program’s independent living coordinator.

In his new position, Huss will facilitate English as a second language classes, as well as teach youth independent living skills like using public transportation and opening a bank account. 

Bailey and Brudnicki are the program’s newest social workers. Both have master’s degrees in social work from Eastern Washington University.

Bailey has a background in worldwide volunteer service, having completed several overseas missions, and previously worked as a social worker for Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center. Brudnicki previously worked as a social worker for the Washington state Department of Social Health and Services. 

Johnson says the new staff and the expansions within the program will help to increase the level of assistance it’s able to provide to the young refugee population.

“We love that we’re creating a reputation for coming alongside and supporting the young refugees of the world,” she says. 

This fall, she says, the program also hopes to provide more volunteer opportunities, and will continue to host informational meetings about the program, as well as explaining the process of becoming a foster parent, on the second Tuesday of every month at Lutheran Community Services offices.