Phoenix Volunteer Child Advocate Training - Fall 2023

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The Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights is training volunteers to serve as Child Advocates for unaccompanied immigrant children in immigration detention. Our next training is scheduled for September 9th and 10th, 2023.

A Child Advocate is a volunteer that spends time with, and supports a vulnerable unaccompanied immigrant child through weekly meetings.

We welcome volunteers from all cultures, professions, races, ethnicities and social backgrounds.

As a Child Advocate, you will:

• Visit with the child each week in the facility they are living in. There are shelters around the state, primarily in Avondale, Phoenix, Mesa, Glendale, and Tucson.

• Connect with the child during your weekly meetings through games, activities, or other creative methods (drawing/painting, board games, sensory activities, books, etc).

• Help the child think through options and decisions.

• Accompany the child to court hearings and other important meetings and interviews.

• Keep detailed case notes after your meetings. These help Young Center staff advocate for the child's best interests to decision makers in the child's case.

• Maintain communication with the Young Center staff.

• Receive continuous support and resources from the Young Center, during and after your case assignments.

To become a Child Advocate, you must:

• Be 21+ years old
• Be fluent or highly proficient in Spanish, Mam, Quiche, Q'eqchi, Q'anjobal, Turkish, Arabic, Punjabi, Pashto, American Sign Language or other Sign Languages
• Be able to travel to at leaser one of the facilities served by the Young Center in Mesa, Phoenix, Glendale, Avondale or Tucson
• Attend a two-day in-person training in September of 2023.
• Clear a federal and state level background check.
• Provide proof of a negative tuberculosis test within the past 12 months to enter a detention facility.
• Provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination.
• Be willing to commit to approximately one hour per week to visit with an immigrant child.

If you are interested in attending the next Child Advocate Training in June or would like more information about the Child Advocate program in Phoenix, please contact Isobel Conroy at iconroy@theyoungcenter.org. You can also fill out an application online at: https://www.theyoungcenter.org/volunteer-child-advocate-interest-form