The St Jerome Emiliani Foster Care Program
Imagine having an abusive parent in a third world country with no viable option for kinship adoption. Now imagine a hostile government takeover swept your city and violently ended the lives of your entire family. This is the reality for thousands of people around the world, many of which are children who are forced to escape to the US.
The St. Jerome Emiliani Foster Care Program provides a nurturing home environment for unaccompanied refugee children and teenagers, many of whom have escaped devastating situations in their native lands. They may have been trafficked here, escorted by a coyote, or traveled overseas, enduring a long journey to make it to a place of refuge. Due to these adverse experiences, the youth may have trauma, be grieving, and exhibit complex behaviors. Our program is the only International Foster Care available in the greater Houston area, so we offer a niche way to help youth in need that differs from domestic foster care, who works with CPS.
Our youth are temporarily held in shelters or refugee camps while they wait to be referred to us by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Once accepted into the St Jerome program, we pick them up from the airport and place them in licensed foster homes. Foster parents play a critical role in providing a stable family: issuing food, clothing, shelter, love, protection, and guidance to the youth in their care to help them become self-sufficient young adults. The end goal is to ensure the foster youth have their needs met in a safe, therapeutic, and caring way.
The St. Jerome Program, with assistance from other programs at Catholic Charities, provides financial support, case management services, independent living skills training, education/English as a Second Language (ESL, mentoring, job skills training, legal assistance, cultural activities, clinical services, and ongoing family tracing). We work as a well-rounded team to offer full support to all our families and take great pride in how we advocate for both the youth and the foster parents when issues arise. We ensure all sides are heard so we can come up with a proper solution.
Every year we see youth from different countries depending on the current political climate. This year, we anticipate the bulk of our referrals to come from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Sudan. Due to these stats, we are hoping to bring on some Spanish speaking foster families, particularly from Central America, and African foster parents, to provide a good cultural match for these youth.
Potential foster parents go through many steps to become licensed with our program, including an orientation, trainings, documentation, home study, and observation hours in other foster homes. We work with our potentials to help guide them through the process and make sure our program is a good fit. If you are interested in making a difference in the lives of these youth, please scan the QR code to fill out our questionnaire and sign up for an orientation to learn more today!
