In the U.S. and internationally, KIND meets children where they are. We are global experts on the rights and needs of unaccompanied and separated children and the laws, policies, and practices that affect them. In response to multiple dangers faced by unaccompanied and separated immigrant and refugee children and the need for a holistic, long-term approach, KIND works to address current challenges head-on, create systemic change, and provide critical services at all points during a child’s journey. Starting with our mission that no child should face the complexities and dangers of migration alone, KIND leverages private-sector legal support and expertise through its pro bono model to help children access protection and exercise their rights; implements a robust psychosocial program; helps children return and reintegrate in their home countries; and addresses the root causes of child migration.

Within a framework based on its mission that no child face immigration court alone, KIND will address every aspect of a child’s migration journey, including home country conditions that cause their flight, the challenges and dangers they face as they migrate alone, and the legal and social obstacles they face after they arrive in the U.S. We will protect unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children through provision of legal representation in immigration court, social services, strategic policy, advocacy, and communications outreach that builds support for access to justice; preserves existing safeguards under U.S. law and funding; builds a framework for children’s protection and humane treatment; and promotes assistance to Central America to address the root causes of child migration. Through KIND’s work, unaccompanied children on the move will have access to protection, due process and critical services.

Source: Nonprofit submitted responses

Goal One: Improve Migrant Children’s Access to Protection in the U.S.: through direct services and advocacy, we will increase the rate of legal representation for unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children.

Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.

Goal Two: Enhance Programming to Protect Kids on the Move: protect unaccompanied children migrating through Europe, Mexico, and Central America through direct services, advocacy, and leveraging our networks.

Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.

Goal Three: Demonstrate Leadership on Child Protection through Policy, Advocacy, and Awareness Raising: increasingly recognized by policymakers as a thought leader on the rights and needs of migrating children.

Goal Type: This goal reflects our commitment to further our advocacy work for our organization and or cause area.

Describe an investment in leadership

KIND made many investments in 2022 to improve capacity and develop new skills among leadership. Some examples include a new 3-hour training designed to help strengthen and support our leaders on the fundamentals of supervision and 6-hour training for senior leadership on diversity, equity, and inclusion lead by a subject-matter expert. KIND has also made an investment in hiring internal staff to lead learning and development for all employees. We have streamlined professional development opportunities into a concise portal, in which staff and leaders can easily access.

This organization mobilizes for mission in the following ways:

• Strategic Partnerships

• Networks of Collective Impact Efforts

• Thought Leadership

• Raising Awareness

• Community Building

• Policy Advocacy

What are this organization’s external mobilizaton efforts?

In KIND’s early years, the needs of unaccompanied children and protections for them were not widely known, understood, or prioritized by the immigration community, policymakers, or the public. KIND’s advocacy underscored the particular needs of unaccompanied children in the context of everything from border work to immigration enforcement; care and custody arrangements; adjudication systems and legal-service needs; regional socioeconomic conditions; and the root causes of migration. KIND developed deep relationships with coalition partners, rapidly responding to attacks and opportunities, sharing talking points and materials, and serving as an expert resource on the unique protection needs of unaccompanied and separated children. KIND helped bring the need for counsel for children into public dialogue. Our pragmatic approach and wide network of partners enabled bipartisan support that we leverage to benefit those working on behalf of immigrant and refugee populations more generally.

2021 saw massive shifts in migration trends and some – but not enough – policy changes intended to provide more humanitarian living and legal options for migrating persons. Knowing that policy change is often an incremental exercise, we were proud to provide insight to the Biden Administration’s Family Reunification Task Force and their deliberations on humanitarian parole, and to be contracted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to give Know Your Rights presentations and connections to social services for the unprecedented influx of unaccompanied immigrant children at Emergency Intake Sites (EIS) at the Southern Border. KIND filed 63 of the nation’s first applications for humanitarian parole and provided Know Your Rights presentations to over 30,000 newly arrived children. The 6,652 children we served in 2021 received integrated legal and social services supports, and thousands more benefited from technical training we provided to government agencies, community organizations, and legal providers, both in the U.S. and in Central America and Europe.