Opening Teen Refugees’ Voices and Worlds

International Center on Responses to Catastrophes (ICORC)

Chicago is a new home for refugee youth from all over the world. Some find support and meaning through families, schools, communities, and religion. Many teen refugees experience a social and cultural marginalization that is not being adequately addressed by existing services

• They carry traumatic memories and live with sadness and fear
• They do not believe that their story matters.
• They do not have mentors to help them realize their dreams

To address these concerns ICORC started HOMES in Summer 2004. We recruited 15 refugee teen Chicago high school students coming from Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosova, Somalia, Sudan, Liberia, Ethiopia, Iraq, and India. Visiting artists Aleksander Hemon and Gina Grillo introduced teens to writing and photography, and guiding them in exploring themes of family, home, identity, and migration. Through a lively exchange of ideas and stories teens explored Uptown neighborhoods, wrote their experiences and took photos. They found new expressions and meanings from the experiences of trauma and migration and built "houses of memories and expectations." On the final evening they presented their works for their friends, parents, and families.

Too often refugee youth get little help building on their dreams and preparing for college. Stevan Weine, ICORC Director, and Nerina Muzurovic, HOMES coordinator, lead workshops on applying to college and writing college essays. We answered everyone’s questions and helped everyone to be more competitive applicants. We have become mentors to these young people to help them transition to college.

We demonstrated that refugee teens are struggling with cultural and social marginalization in ways that we can successfully address through HOMES. HOMES was able to:

• Recruit and engage a diverse group of refugee teens
• Provide a positive, supportive and creative environment
• Introduce them to the arts and help them tell stories of migration and refuge
• Prepare them for college.

Each teen wants to continue to be a part of HOMES with year round activities. We want to offer HOMES to more Chicago teen refugees in Summer 2005.

HOMES has received supported from UIC Psychiatry, individual donors, Saint Gertrude’s church, and small local business leaders in Uptown. This year we are seeking support to:

• Provide scholarships for teens.
• Publish a book from teens’ creative work.
• Support two visiting mentor artists
• Support year round activities.