Call the Unaccompanied Refugee Minors Program Recruitment Specialist at 774.243.3062 or email CSchroth@ascentria.org to express your interest in fostering a refugee minor. You will be required to complete a phone screening as well as a brief questionnaire.
After completing the phone screening and questionnaire, you will be given a URMP Foster Care Application. Complete the application and return it to our recruitment specialist via email, fax or mail. Your application will be assigned to a family resource coordinator who will start the verification process and will be in touch with you.
Background checks (criminal and state child welfare), reference checks (employment, personal, school and medical) will be completed, and your home will be inspected by the family resource coordinator. Your home must meet state-mandated regulations in order to proceed with the application process.
After your application has been approved, you will attend a state-mandated training called Massachusetts Approach to Partnership in Parenting (MAPP). The MAPP training highlights the many different profiles of children in the foster care system, particularly as it pertains to refugee youth. The MAPP curriculum comprehensively covers key topics such as communication techniques, trauma, sexual abuse, physical abuse, sexual orientation, discipline and mental h
Your family resource coordinator will visit with you and your household members during a series of home visits in order to get to know your family better. The home study is an opportunity to reflect upon your family’s strengths as you consider what type of youth may fit best in your home. Your family resource coordinator will be happy to accommodate your schedule. You will be able to set the pace for how quickly to proceed through this important step.
After the background check, training and home study are completed, and your family is determined to be an appropriate fit for the URM program, you will officially become a licensed foster parent! Congratulations, an unaccompanied refugee minor is now ready to be added to your family!
Your family resource coordinator, along with additional professionals on the URM team, will review referrals and match the needs of a refugee minor with your family’s strengths. You will receive all available information about the minor so that you can make an informed decision about whether to move forward with placement.
Now the real journey begins! You will be closely supported by a team of professionals — including the youth’s case manager and your family resource coordinator — as your family adjusts to the new family member. This partnership will continue as we collectively work to empower the youth toward reaching their full potential and the goal of living an independent, healthy and fulfilling life.