no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well
"I never envisioned running an organization of 40 people. When I first started this work, it was just me—I was the one who traveled down to the border to train child advocates, and the one who went to court. I was in the children’s shelters all the time, in the trenches, and I loved it."
Read More
Last week, the Washington Post published a powerful op-ed by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) on why we provide protections for unaccompanied immigrant children, and why these laws are not accidental loopholes but intended acts of basic human decency.
Read More
Every day the Young Center works with children separated from parents by U.S. immigration officials. In most cases, the separation is not done to protect the child, but is instead related to the parent’s immigration status. We applaud today's announcement of an investigation into improper family separation at the border.
Read More
In a gripping piece for the New Yorker, Sarah Stillman investigates how the U.S. is deporting migrants who are fleeing danger and seeking asylum, what happens to them when they are forced to leave, and how people are fighting back.
Read More
We’re thrilled to announce that Teresa Sullivan is the Young Center’s new Board President. Teresa is a natural leader, a gifted orator, a skilled fundraiser, and most importantly, a fierce advocate for unaccompanied children.
Read More
On January 8, the Trump administration announced that 200,000 Salvadorans must leave the U.S. These Salvadorans had been allowed to live here since 2001 through the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program and have built lives in the U.S. Many of them are relatives of the children the Young Center works with—aunts, uncles, siblings who sponsor the children out of federal custody.
Read More
The Young Center is leading an effort to bring together child protection organizations to urge the Administration to abandon plans to separate children from their parents at the border.
Read More
On Tuesday, January 16, more than 130 child welfare, juvenile justice and child development organizations released a letter calling on the Administration to abandon plans to forcibly separate children from their mothers and fathers at the U.S. Mexico border.
Read More
On the eve of the holidays, the Department of Homeland Security is threatening to take children away from their parents when they arrive at the border. This has been happening on an ad hoc basis, but under this policy, all children would be separated.
UPDATE 12/1/17: Thanks to you, we raised $37,000 this #GivingTuesday, surpassing our goal by nearly 50%.
Read More
Jennifer Nagda, the Young Center's director of programs and policy, spoke last week to the Houston Chronicle about immigration authorities separating children and parents
Read More
On November 3rd, our Executive Director, Maria Woltjen, was honored with the UNICEF Chicago Humanitarian Award for her “commitment to putting children first and the impactful work of the Young Center.”
The White House submitted its proposal to Congress plan in which it would allegedly support some kind of protection for DREAMers in exchange for taking away protections from unaccompanied children. Rolling back protections for unaccompanied children—children fleeing violence in Central America—is literally at the top of the administration’s list of demands.
Read More
La Mariposa Soñadora (Dreamy Butterfly) is a work of art by Bety, an unaccompanied immigrant child from Central America. It was recently featured in a major metropolitan museum. Bety fled her home country, traveling by herself to the United States where she presented herself to authorities and asked for protection. She was taken into federal custody and appointed a Young Center Child Advocate who fought for her best interests.
Read More