Refugee and Asylee Programs saw another strong year with higher than expected arrivals across the region, including a substantial and sustained influx of Cubans Entrants and arrival of Ukrainian Parolees. Together, unexpected arrivals made up nearly two-thirds of new clients. Overall LFSRM saw a 125% increase in new arrivals over the previous year, overtaking the previous year’s record number of arrivals which had been driven by Humanitarian Parolees from Afghanistan who were evacuated as a part of Operation Allies Refuge.

Refugee Youth Education:

The Refugee Youth Education Program provided mentoring, educational support, and career exploration opportunities for refugee youth in Greeley and Colorado Springs during the past year. The programs served a total of 112 students altogether with 83 youth in Greeley and 29 in Colorado Springs.

Note: LFSRM has secured funding to provide Refugee Youth Education programming in Denver starting in October 2023.

Refugee Youth Empowerment Program

The Refuge Youth Empowerment Program provided refugee youth throughout Colorado with opportunities for social-emotional skill building and mentoring to support positive youth development and goal accomplishment. The Program Served 238 Students in 8 Schools in Fiscal Year 2023.

Unfortunately, due to extremely high competition for Tony Grampsas Youth Services program funds, the program was not funded to continue in Fiscal Year 2024.

Refugee Microenterprise Development (MED)

The MED program provides training, technical assistance, and loans for Refugees and Asylees to start, maintain, and expand small businesses. The program helps to create refugee owned small businesses, generate jobs, increase incomes, and contribute to the local economy. Program participation and outcomes data for Fiscal Year 2023 reflect services in New Mexico although the program has now started in Colorado with opportunities available to clients in and around Colorado Springs and Greeley.

Program Participation and Outcomes

Individuals Enrolled - 6
Credit Building Loans Issued - 3
Small Business Loans Issued - None
Average Business Success Rate - 100%

Individual Development Accounts (IDA)

The IDA program helps Refugees and Asylees save toward assets that will help with financial independence by incentivizing saving through matched contributions toward assets like home or automobile purchases, post- secondary education or training, or small business start-up costs.

Program Participation and Outcomes

Individual IDAs Opened - 33
Household IDAs Opened - 10
Vehicle Assets Purchased - 21
Microenterprise Assets Purchased - 8

Pamoja Early Childhood Education (ECE) Pathways Program

The Pamoja program provides culturally and linguistically responsive ECE college and career pathways for refugee women to build fulfilling and sustainable careers in early childhood education.

Program Participation and Outcomes

New Applications - 76
Individuals who attended classes - 60
Individuals enrolled at Community College of Denver for the first time - 33
Individuals who completed credits toward their ECE Level I & Level II Credentials - 27
Individuals who completed their ECE Paraeducator Certificate - 15
Individuals from previous Cohorts who graduated with their ECE Director's Certificate - 25

Immigration Legal Services

Immigration Legal Services expanded in Fiscal Year 2023 to meet the need of clients in New Mexico. The program now provides services throughout Colorado, New Mexico, and in Utah with attorneys on staff in Denver, Albuquerque, Las Cruces, and Salt Lake City. The program also provides SRS fingerprinting in Denver, Colorado Springs, Albuquerque, Las Cruces, and Salt Lake City and providing fingerprinting for 76 individuals over the past fiscal year.

Program Participation and Outcomes

Total Cases Served during Fsical Year 2023 - 976
New Cases Opened in Fiscal Year 2023 - 640
ILS filing completed - 448
Success Rate of Filings - 97%

Domestic Foster Care

Domestic Foster Care placements continued to drop in Fiscal Year 2023 with placements declining in the Central and North foster care programs. Although domestic placements in the South foster care program were higher than normal, the domestic program overall was not able to meet its projected budget surplus.

In FY 2022, the decline in LFSRM placements was representative of the trend across the state, however, in 2023, LFSRM saw a more significant decline in placements than the state average for Child Placement Agencies or County Departments in general. With significant staffing challenges over the past year, LFSRM foster care was not able to pilot therapeutic foster care due to lack of capacity and need to stabilize teams through staffing challenges which led to very high caseloads with more challenging cases.

URM Foster Care

The URM Foster Care Program stayed relatively steady throughout the year but wasn’t able to achieve the additional growth hoped for as available placements through the LIRS network were lower than expected and competition for those placements across the network was high, making it difficult to secure placements even when appropriate homes were available. Additionally, plans to place 8 higher acuity youth into a higher level of care through a sub-contract with Shiloh House, Inc. did not move as quickly as hoped due initially to licensing issues on the at the State, and then staffing issues and turnover with the partner agency.

Foster Care - Clinical Services

LFSRM expanded clinical services in each of its foster care programs in fiscal year 2023. The primary focus of the Clinical program remained stabilization through early access to clinical supports and clinicians continued to work with Case Managers to identify children and families needing extra support in order to avoid unnecessary disruptions to placement.

The agency was able to have a second clinician certified to train Trust Based Relational Intervention and expanded efforts to train staff and families in the trauma-informed approach to parenting and caring for children who have experienced complex trauma. In addition to TBRI, the Clinical Services team provided related training for foster parents and staff and the Clinical Services Supervisor supported teams throughout the agency by providing training and workshops on Secondary Trauma. Below is a summary of training provided as of June 30, 2023.

Older Adult Guardianship Program

The Older Adult Guardianship Program remained strong throughout the year with a steady stream of referrals from hospital partners. The program used staff turnover as an opportunity to restructure positions in the hopes of better being able to support Wards and Families into the future, and to keep up with the steady growth of the guardianship program. Referrals have been increasing in complexity, requiring an evaluation of our funding structure to be certain there is the ability to retain appropriate legal counsel, when necessary. In addition to maintaining strong relationships with our current hospital partners, there is increasing interest from care facilities, Department of Corrections, and other hospital partners to explore new or expanded partnerships. This year marked the fifth year of the program, which will allow for real data to continue to inform upcoming evaluation of the Older Adult Program and decisions about necessary adjustments to ensure the program is positioned to meet the needs of the community.

• This year the program reduced the average time from Guardianship Award to Discharge from 26 days in FY 2022, to 18 days in FY 2023.

Adoption & Pregnancy Options Counseling

Despite an increase in the total number of adoptive placements over the previous year and increased revenue from related service fees, the program continued to struggle financially. Contributing factors included a significant increase in the number of Designated cases which carry lower service fees; a drop in the number of open adoptions; fewer international adoption referrals for relinquishment counseling or post-adoptive services; and a significant number of losses related to bad debt and billing corrections that were written off during the fiscal year, further impacting the bottom line.

Program Participation and Outcomes

Adoptive Placements - 18
Families who had an Adoptive Placement - 12
Families who received Post-Adoptive Services from a previous Adoptive Placement - 15
Waiting Families not yet matched for Adoption - 20
Birth Parents who Received Options Counseling - 18
Birth Parents who Received County Referred Relinquishment Counseling - 8

Interstate Compact (ICPC) Reviews

LFSRM is contracted by the State of Colorado to review all Interstate Compacts for the Placement of Children related to adoptive placements entering Colorado. During Fiscal Year 2023 the program reviewed 166 ICPC placement packets to ensure the safely of children and compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

Family Support and Education

Family Support Programs

Parent Education Programs

Child/Youth Education & Empowerment Programs

Emergency Humanitarian Relief and Support

In Fiscal Year 2023, LFSRM provided light-touch case management and resource navigation as well as limited financial assistance to Migrants and Asylum Seekers who arrived in Las Cruces, NM and in Denver, CO. Programs are funded through a mix of LIRS Welcome Center funding and Private grants and contributions.

*Does not include light-touch information and referrals.

Disaster Relief

Disaster Relief began its Marshall Fire Recovery Navigation program in July 2022 to provide Disaster Care Management assistance to residents impacted by the Marshall Fire and Straight Line Wind event. The program offers basic resource referral to any household impacted by the fire or wind event and more intensive services to households needing assistance with developing a recovery plan; applying for available funding for unmet needs, repair or rebuild; advocacy and navigation assistance; language assistance; direct assistance for immediate and urgent unmet needs, and other identified needs.

Program Participation and Outcomes

Calls to affected households - 1,375
Appointments with Impacted Residents - 1,153
Assistance with Applications for Funding - 476 Households
Cases Opened for Intensive Services - 413 Households