The program provides an alternative to detention while supporting family reunification wherever possible. Catholic Charities programs around the country provide home assessment and follow-up casework services for these unaccompanied minors. If the relative agrees and passes an INS records check, then a caseworker conducts a home assessment. If the home assessment is positive, it is communicated to INS, and the minor is usually released to the physical custody of the relative. The caseworker then provides follow-up services and counseling to the minor and sponsor family.
Some locations also provide support groups run by a bilingual therapist.
Foster Care Sites. The programs provide newly arriving refugees with enhanced information on local resources, community services and institutions, American mores, customs, laws, responsibilities associated with being new residents of their communities, and other appropriate topics. Grantees provide services in communities where new refugees are arriving and where available orientation materials are not appropriate or adequate. It is anticipated that the mental health initiative program will contribute significantly to the self-sufficiency and assimilation of newly arrived refugees who are identified as in need of these services. Preferred Communities are those resettlement sites where refugees are considered to have the best chance for attaining self-sufficiency and for beginning sustained economic and social interaction with other residents in their new community.