Southwest Key opened its first shelter for unaccompanied immigrant children in El Paso in 1996. In 2007, we operated ten safe shelters in seven cities in Arizona, Texas, and California. The programs are funded by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in the Administration of Children and Families under the Department of Health and Human Services.
Southwest Key's unaccompanied children's shelter programs thrived in 2007, expanding the number of children served and the scope of services in Arizona, California, and Texas. In 2007, Southwest Key shelters served over 550 youth per day, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, for a total of 87,600 staffed hours in our shelter system. Our 500 shelter staff completed a comprehensive training program, logging over 20,000 hours of training in 2007 in areas such as conflict resolution, loss and family separation, and child trafficking. Each of Southwest Keys 10 facilities are state licensed and meet ORR requirements to ensure a high quality of care.
In 2007, ORR saw a dramatic increase in the number of children referred to their care, necessitating an expansion of existing shelter care capacity. ORR recognized that Southwest Key had the infrastructure, licensing, experience and appropriate level of trained staff to meet the service requirements and the urgent need for expansion. Within 60 days of request, Southwest Key opened additional bed space at shelters in El Paso, Houston, Conroe, Phoenix, and South Texas ensuring that 100 additional youth who come into this country unaccompanied are given shelter, food, clothing, and education in a safe environment every day. Our highly trained staff worked around the clock to reunify over 1050 youth with their families or a caregiver in the United States this year, which is the central goal of all ten shelter programs.
About the Program
Many youth from all over the world leave their countries of origin seeking a better life in the United States. These young people under the age of 18 enter the United States by the thousands every year. Some are escaping unbearable living conditions in their home countries, others have family they are searching for, while still others have little else than a desire for the opportunities available in the United States. Southwest Key's Unaccompanied Minor Programs serve youth who enter the United States without parents or adult guardians and have been detained by immigration officials. As the largest provider of shelter services to unaccompanied minors in the United States, our programs encourage the development of personal, social, academic and vocational skills while the minors await reunification with their families and/or the resolution of their legal case. Minors are provided with education, counseling, casework management, recreation and medical services. Our program honors and respects individual cultures and traditions, as well as offers opportunities for acculturation. These humanitarian services are provided in a nurturing, strengths based therapeutic environment.
The length of care is intended to be 45 days as plans are made to reunite the youth with relatives living in the United States, if possible, or back in their country of origin. However, due to variables and uncertainties inherent in each young person's case, the programs have the ability to provide shortor long-term care. The Unaccompanied Minor Programs combine our knowledge of and success in working with at risk youth with our experience in refugee services.
