What We Do
Responsibilities
As a U-LAMPer our primary goals, responsibilities, and foci are to:
- Provide emotional support to the youths through weekly check-ins
- Assist in placing youths in appropriate educational programs
- Aid in determining and procuring appropriate food and housing
- Communicate messages between youths and Safe Passage Project staff and attorneys
- Inform youths of court appearance dates
- Translate during screenings and meetings between youths and attorneys
- Translate documents essential to successful court outcomes
- Accompany youth migrants to meetings with attorneys and other service providers
- Research issues relevant to the migration of unaccompanied minors from Mexico and Central America
In short, no task is too small.
“I recommend this project because in addition to being exposed to a unique professional opportunity, one gets to build heartfelt relationships with individuals from different parts of Latin America, each with different personalities, customs, and jokes. The children and their stories will stick with you and help you grow, it helped me.”
---Myriam Santamaria, JJay ‘17
Past Projects
U-LAMP @ WHEELSBuilding on Safe Passage Project’s longstanding collaboration with WHEELS, or Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School, U-LAMPer and WHEELS alumna Arlienny Hernandez provides social and academic support to WHEELS students who are currently Safe Passage Project clients. In addition to acting as a link between the youths and Safe Passage Project attorneys, she also assists them with school work, college applications and even enrollment into alternative education programs. In 2016, Arlienny will also provide workshops on applying to college and immigration, including Know Your Rights presentations.
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U-LAMP en La Casa Azul BookstoreLa Casa Azul Bookstore, in collaboration with the Unaccompanied Latin American Minor Project (U-LAMP) at John Jay College of Criminal Justice/Safe Passage Project is hosting a book drive for children who were apprehended and detained at the Mexico-US border and are currently in deportation proceedings in the New York City area.
The goal of this project is to provide children and teenagers who are both living in local shelters and residing with legal guardians with new and gently used Spanish-language books in good condition. |
Voto Latino Innovators ChallengeUnaccompanied Latin American Minors often stand alone before judges and other immigration officials without counsel. Researchers and legal scholars predict that between 60 to 80% of these children qualify for some type of legal relief including asylum or Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJ), but most of the youths are unaware of this or the complex process and system in which they have involuntarily been entered into. In order to address this issue, our U-LAMPer Myriam Santamaria entered the Voto Latino Innovators Challenge in order to receive the funding to create an app game that addresses this issue through an age and culturally appropriate way.
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