Family Separation Crisis on US Border: How Donors Can Help

Giving Compass’ Take:

• Over 2,000 migrant children have been separated from their families at the southern U.S. border within the past few weeks due to strict immigration enforcement. Here, The Center for High Impact Philanthropy provides ways donors can help with this crisis.

• Going beyond politics, CHIP discusses how legal aid and basic needs for this population can be met in the near-term, but there needs to be more thought given to a sustainable, lasting solution (without partisan squabbling).

• Learn more about how you can get involved when it comes to halting family separation at our nation’s borders.

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Over the past weeks, over 2,000 minors were separated from their parents/guardians at the southern border of the United States. Disturbed by the images and reports of children separated from their parents, people across the country and around the world are asking, “How can I help?” Here we outline the immediate needs and ways donors can help.

1. Legal Assistance — The greatest immediate needs are legal, and they are many and varied.
2. Shelter and Care — Although there is an existing system of shelters for unaccompanied immigrant children, it is not clear that these shelters have sufficient capacity and resources to meet the needs of a large influx of traumatized children.
3. Information — Reuniting separated parents and children can be complicated by the fact that they are in different systems, with different tracking and processing timelines.

With competing narratives in the media and a constantly changing policy situation, it can be easy to get overwhelmed, confused, and ultimately reluctant to act. Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR) compiles what’s happening around the country and also connects funders with others to share what they’ve learned. Last week, they published Philanthropic Strategies to Support Refugees and Asylum Seekers profiles a wide range of donors’ strategies with key lessons learned from their experiences.

Though we focus here on the immediate needs, Sarah Martinez-Helfman, president of the Fels Fund and a GCIR member, encourages donors to act now, but still remain focused on the longer-term. As Martinez-Helfman observes, “The consequences of multi-generational trauma have already been set in motion. We need long-term strategies that address the legal representation and integration of displaced people, the sustainability of the infrastructure of organizations to support them, and systems-change to prevent an international crisis of this scale to continue.”

Read the full article about helping the family separation crisis at The Center for High Impact Philanthropy.