On June 31, 2014 ISNA convened a Special Informational Session on ” Unaccompanied Alien Children: A humanitarian crisis at our border. During this session attendees received updated information on the situation and future projections for the flow of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) at the South Texas border. With regard to the needs of UACs the Austin/Travis County is set to benefit most from the development of scalable, resource-filled systems that respond well to the ebb and flow of UACs and that are resilient to adverse political climates.
As a result of this need, and the results of the UAC Capacity Assessment Survey, ISNA has convened an Austin/Travis County focused Task Force with the goal of centralizing UAC related information, data and best practices in order to:
- better allow for the coordination of services,
- foment the identification and development of resources,
- identify methods to improve gaps in services.
To achieve this, the following workgroups were convened:
- Legal Services Workgroup: Bruce Bower, Lead
- Family Services: Angela-Jo Touza-Medina, Lead
If you are interested in learning more about the workgroups, please use the contact information provided above.
Additional Resources
- Updated monthly: Office of Refugee Resettlement: Unaccompanied Children released to Sponsors by County.
- 8-September-14: ISNA Overview of UAC Informational Session for the City of Austin Commission on Immigrant Affairs
- 7- August-14: Immigrant Services Network of Austin Response to Unaccompanied Youth Emigrating from Central America – Community Advancement Network
Angela-Jo Touza-Medina, Immigrant Services Network of Austin - A brief summary of the informational panel highlights, which is available for download here.
- The notes that resulted from the preliminary planning exercise conducted at the end of the July 31, 2014 session. They can be downloaded here.
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