The Unaccompanied Refugee Minor Program

This program is located in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and provides foster home care and supportive case management services to refugee children and teens who have fled their homelands because of war and persecution. These young people have been separated from their families and are classified while in resettlement camps as "unaccompanied refugee minors" who are in need of care and protection. Referrals are made through the national headquarters of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. Child welfare services are overseen by the Massachusetts Department of Social Services. Since its inception in 1980, the URMP has cared for more than 240 refugee children from Southeast Asia, Central America, Africa, Haiti and Cuba. Foster families, often of the child's own ethnic background, have joined in partnership with the multi-cultural staff to provide the care and support necessary for these young people to become self-sufficient adults in their new country. In 2000 and 2001, LSS resettled 40 of the "lost children of Sudan" in the greater Boston area.

Lutheran Social Services employs staff whose sole focus is the cultivation of sponsors and volunteers to help refugees cope successfully with the enormous needs and challenges they face when they first arrive in their new homeland.

For more information contact JWoodward@lssne.org .