Unaccompanied Children Lived Experience and Youth Engagement Support

The Unaccompanied Children Lived Experience and Youth Engagement Support Program is forecasted to provide funding to establish, manage, and evaluate a Lived Experience Community Council and Lived Experience Leadership Academy comprised of former unaccompanied children and individuals who sponsored children from ORR care. The recipient shall recruit, identify, orient, and train lived experience experts that reflect the demographic diversity (e.g., age, language, etc.) and varied experiences and circumstances (e.g., pregnant/parenting youth, survivors of human trafficking, etc.) of former unaccompanied children and sponsors. Therefore, prior experience developing programming centering lived experience and youth voice and/or supporting unaccompanied children, sponsors, and reunified families is highly desirable. These lived experience bodies have two objectives. The first is to collect feedback from former unaccompanied children and reunified families about their first-hand experience integrating to the United States. The second is to positively impact the lives of Community Council and Leadership Academy members by building their capacity to serve as leaders within their respective communities. The recipient shall provide the necessary resources, such as personnel, to support the implementation of the lived experience bodies. Task areas will include: a) development of the Community Council implementation plan and Leadership Academy curriculum; b) development of a web-based application; c) selection of eligible candidates to the appropriate lived experience body; d) project management; e) interpretation and translation services for, and during, community meetings; f) secure technology for members to participate in virtual meetings; g) compensate members for their time; h) as separate cohorts, coordinate and implement Washington Weeks for the Community Council and Leadership Academy to meet with government leaders and relevant stakeholders, and i) disseminate to the ORR-funded network feedback obtained through the lived experience bodies' work that centers youth voice and lived experience.