To the volunteers, people who would like to make donations, and potential foster parents…

Thank you so much for the incredible outpouring of caring and desire to help. CGS operates a program for unaccompanied children funded by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The vast majority of our children have come to this country as unaccompanied minors and we care for them in home-like settings where they are provided with school, food, clothing, medical care, and mental health counseling. We work to reunite them with their sponsors in this country.  They have access to legal counsel to assist with their immigration process. On any given day we serve up to 60 unaccompanied children. A very, very small percentage of these are separated children. And the material and mental health and educational needs of all children in our UAC program are fully met. And while we appreciate this incredible outpouring of generosity, at this time we are no longer in need of donations as all of the children’s needs are presently met through our government funding.

However, CGS also serves families and children across New York City in our family support and foster care programs for which we are accepting the following donations:

·       New toys

·       New layettes, strollers, diapers

·       School supplies and backpacks

If you are interested in volunteering for our UAC program there are no opportunities to work one on one with our children at this time. We are, however, looking for volunteer mentors for our children in regular foster care. If you are interested there is information on our website for our program Guiding Hand.

Finally, if you are interested in fostering an unaccompanied child we are accepting applications. However, the applicant must live in the Bronx and must be fluent in Spanish. Applicants will go through our normal licensing process and will be in our program to serve all unaccompanied children, not only separated children. If you are interested and meet these criteria, please email UACfosterparent@catholicguardian.org noting you are interested in becoming a UAC foster parent and our homefinder will get back to you.

To the press…

No press is allowed to interview, photograph, or film an unaccompanied child or our staff. Any request to do so must go through ORR. Please contact media@hhs.gov. We do have a brief description of our program available.  Please contact our main number and leave a message with your email and someone will forward the program description.