Immigrant and Refugee Families
Our nation’s population of immigrant and refugee families continues to grow at a rapid pace. Children of immigrants now represent 20 percent of children and youth under 18 and 25 percent of all children living in poverty. Our Making Connections and Civic Sites, including Denver, Oakland, Providence, Seattleand San Antonioclearly reflect these trends. As a result, children of immigrants have emerged as a population that is critical for the Casey Foundation to serve.
Based on the research we’ve supported over the last few years as well as our experiences in communities across the country, we have chosen to focus our investments on three target goals to improve outcomes for vulnerable immigrant and refugee families. These goals include (1) increasing the share of children and adults with limited English proficiency who succeed in learning English; (2) increasing the number of families with limited English proficiency who are connected to public benefits, work supports and quality schools options; and (3) increasing the number of families with limited English proficiency who use lower cost financial services and are able to build credit pathways using remittance sending histories.
Casey Funding in Action
- We make grants that enable us to identify the best models and strategies for teaching English and promote these models extensively. We also provide support to research centers such as the Urban Institute and the Population Reference Bureau to help us use data and research to build the case the limited English proficiency is one of the most critical factors to address in order for immigrant families to achieve success.
- We make grants to support a peer network of existing language access practitioners to create a set of practice standards and tools to support the implementation of high quality language access programs that can better serve immigrant families. We also provide support to high-performing agencies, such as New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services, to accelerate the development of their language access programming.
- We provide grants that enable us to build knowledge and tools on how to connect immigrant families to mainstream financial institutions and lower-cost financial services. Our grants also help us build partnerships with advocates, policymakers and funders who are also interested in increasing immigrants’ social, political, and financial inclusion.
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