In 2014, the Long Island Community Foundation established the Long Island Immigrant Children’s Fund, a donor collaborative that pooled resources to support critical social and advocacy services to Central American children who began arriving on Long Island without adult family members in unexpectedly large numbers at that time. Since then, leveraging contributions from ten funders and donors, it has awarded more than $1.3 million to organizations that have assisted hundreds of immigrant youth through immigration and family court proceedings, connected them and their families to needed social services, and advocated for appropriate educational services.
The Long Island Immigrant Children’s Fund has been a vital mechanism for addressing the needs of recently arrived immigrant children on Long Island. Funders have worked together with stakeholders serving these children to identify gaps and needed services, such as legal representation, educational advocacy, and mental health services. These services continue to be critically important as national anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric continue to fuel this hostility and threaten the rights of these refugee minors.
The journey from Central America to the United States is dangerous and difficult, yet for many, it is an opportunity to flee extreme violence and persecution in their home countries in search of safety and the promise of a better life.
The film shines a light on the urgent need for support for those organizations.
The film is presented in conjunction with the J.M. Kaplan Fund with the goal of helping provide necessary funding for organizations like those featured in the film to directly help families navigate the complicated legal landscape required to get the status they need to make it in this country.
Please join us in our mission to help make life a little easier for immigrant families like those featured in our film.
Four Easy Ways to Give
- By credit card: Click on the button above or scan the QR code on the right.
- Send a check: Make it out to “Community Funds, Inc.” Please write “Long Island Immigrant Children’s Fund” on the memo line. Mail it to the Long Island Community Foundation, 900 Walt Whitman Road, Suite 205, Melville, NY 11747.
- Transfer your gift: If you have a donor-advised fund, you can transfer a gift from your fund. Contact Marie Smith our donor relations director: msmith@licf.org
- Give from your IRA: Under the “charitable IRA rollover” provision, donors aged 70 and a half or older may direct contributions from an IRA to the Long Island Immigrant Children’s Fund, excluding them from taxable income (up to $100,000), and counting them towards the required minimum distribution. As the provision excludes contributions to donor-advised funds or private foundations, this is a great way to take advantage of this tax benefit.
- Match that gift: Don’t forget to check if your employer makes matching gifts! Some companies will double or triple your contribution, increasing the impact of your gift.
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rockville Centre
Central American Refugee Center – CARECEN NY
The Health and Welfare Council of Long Island, Inc.
New York Civil Liberties Union
New York Immigration Coalition
Safe Passage Project
Touro Law Center
Alpern Family Foundation, Inc.
Episcopal Diocese of Long Island
Greentree Foundation
Hagedorn Family Foundation, Inc.
The J.M. Kaplan Fund, Inc.
Long Island Community Foundation
Long Island Unitarian Universalist Fund
The Rauch Foundation, Inc.
Sisters of Saint Joseph
And other individual donors
Between 2014-2019, Long Island received 15,553 immigrant children, mostly from Central America, nearly 44 percent of the New York State total.
Since October 2020, Suffolk and Nassau Counties received 3,001 children, an increase of more than 550 percent from the previous year.
Children entering the United States alone are afforded certain protections under U.S. immigration law, but legal counsel is not one of them.
Without legal representation, 100 percent of immigrant minors end up detained or deported. With representation, they have an 80 percent chance of being granted asylum or relief.
Advocates indicate that only 25 percent of the population of migrant youth on Long Island have received legal support.
For more information about the Immigrant Children’s Fund contact:
Sol Marie Alfonso Jones, Senior Program Officer: sjones@licf.org
Melissa Greenberger, Program Officer: mgreenberger@licf.org