KIND staff member with client at a back to school event

Holistic Services

Through Trauma-Informed Care

KIND’s Social Services team helps children and families globally, adjust to a new country, language, home, and community, and works to address the traumas during their journey to safety.  We have connected thousands of clients – and their families– with essential medical care, mental health care, educational opportunities, and crisis intervention to ensure their well-being and safety.

The coordinators focus on targeting clients’ non-legal needs while simultaneously mentoring attorneys to ensure their work is inclusive of trauma-informed and child sensitive practices. By supporting client’s overall well-being and connecting them with resources in their communities, the impact of our interdisciplinary model extends well after KIND’s work with the child ends.

Individual Children Receiving Psychosocial Services

1326
2021
1528
2022
1851
2023
Feature Resource

CARE: A Toolkit for Professionals Serving Unaccompanied and Separated Children

The CARE Toolkit by Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) equips professionals with a trauma-informed, youth-centered framework—Connect, Assess, Respond, Educate—to support unaccompanied and separated immigrant children. Designed for attorneys, social workers, educators, and community partners, this comprehensive guide offers actionable strategies to build trust, assess risk, link children to critical resources, and empower them through […]

Read CARE: A Toolkit for Professionals Serving Unaccompanied and Separated Children
Feature Resource

Volunteering with KIND's Social Services Team

Helping Unaccompanied Children Adjust to Life in the United States Unaccompanied children around the world are searching for safety, fleeing violence and persecution from which their governments cannot protect them. No matter what their country of origin or reason for migration, these children need our help to pursue a safer future. What We Do Our […]

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What We Do

Counseling Referrals

The majority of KIND clients have endured trauma during their journey to safety. Our coordinators work within the community to ensure each child has access to counseling services.

Play Therapy

Play therapy is a therapeutic approach using play to help clients better process their experiences and develop more effective strategies for managing their worlds.

Mental & Health Insurance

Our coordinators work within the community to ensure our clients have access to the mental and health services they need.

School Enrollment

Our coordinators work with our clients to ensure they are enrolled in school.

Job Placements

Many of our clients need help finding and applying for jobs. Our coordinators connect clients with community organizations to help with interviews and job placements.

Learn More

KIND Client Stories

KIND Client Stories

Read about the children KIND helps and those who have helped them.

Artolution

Artolution

In partnership with Artolution, KIND client’s worked together to create vivid murals to tell their stories, process trauma, and find their power.

backpack drive with the social services team
drawing by kind client
donation drive for clients at KIND
Fresno resource fair
book drive for clients
KIND therapy dog workshop for clients impacted by family separation
Newark office play therapy workshop to help facilitate post-traumatic healing

The Impact of Our Work

"A KIND client who came to the U.S. alone to seek safety from gang threats. KIND’s social services coordinator worked with her to connect her with food, clothing, medical services, baby supplies, and domestic violence resources and shelters. Now she's able to navigate systems on her own and is more self-sufficient."
KIND Staff Member Fresno
"KIND’s social service coordinators often help our clients see beyond their past and immediate struggles and to push towards new opportunities and fresh starts. For Luisa, this meant viewing her history of sexual abuse as a reason to seek healing through therapy services, joining boxing classes to feel stronger and empowered, and pushing forward to completing high school. "
KIND Staff Member New York
"Freddy, a 17-year-old Honduran boy, faced spending the entirety of the process in U.S. custody. His pro bono attorney and social services coordinator, through the partnerships she had established, were able to connect him to a program that would provide Freddy with a host with whom he could stay until his case was decided. Freddy is happily adjusting to his new home. "
KIND Staff Member Seattle
"As his legal case progressed, Carlos (8) had to recount traumatic experiences from his home country to make his case for U.S. protection and began to experience developmental regression—wetting his bed, social withdrawal, and communications challenges. His pro bono attorney and social services coordinator connected him to therapeutic support, an out-of-school program, and a referral for his mother for parenting and family therapy support. He has been making good progress, and continues to be a devoted soccer fan. "
KIND Staff Member Boston

FAQs

KIND’s Social Service Coordinators (SSCs) help children adjust to a life in the United States, including a new language, home, and community, and to address the trauma that most experienced before they came.

We have connected children with medical and mental health care, educational opportunities, and play therapy, to name a few.

Helping children deal with the trauma they suffered in their home country, on their journey, or in the United States facilitates healing so they can start to enjoy a childhood many have never had, perform well in school, and maintain healthy relationships.

December 8, 2023

Opportunities for Youth (OFY)

Opportunities for Youth (OFY) California is consistently one of the top three states receiving unaccompanied children and in the country. Since 2014, California has received over 60,350 unaccompanied ...

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September 8, 2021

“Our Creative Roots /Nuestras Raíces Creativas”, A Mural Collaboration with Artolution

Seven teenagers, many of whom fled violence in Central America and who are clients of Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), spent three weeks working with Artolution artists to design and paint a large-scal...

Read “Our Creative Roots /Nuestras Raíces Creativas”, A Mural Collaboration with Artolution
July 23, 2021

Helping our child clients express themselves through creative arts

In May, KIND’s social services team partnered with Artolution’s “Jovenes en Movimiento” (Youth in Movement) for a 3-day online dance workshop with 10 KIND clients.  Led by Artolution artists ...

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June 22, 2021
Art by KIND client Kimberly

Art as an Outlet for Clients in Seattle Amid Pandemic

The pandemic has hit KIND clients hard. KIND’s social services coordinators have seen the impact first-hand, and in Seattle, they were able to provide clients with an outlet to express themselves cr...

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November 25, 2019

The Power of Sharing Your Story

The power of stories and lived experience—this was the theme of a recent Voices That Matter Most workshop KIND held at our office in Boston with clients and staffers from Congresswoman Ayanna Pres...

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Protect Children and Their Well-Being

You can help make a difference in a child’s life today.
Join us as we work to ensure the safety and well-being of children on the move.

 

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