New Jersey Consortium for Immigrant Children (NJCIC)

Our mission and vision at the NJ Consortium for Immigrant Children (NJCIC) is to work with NJ’s young immigrants and their allies to advance their full, fearless participation in our society. We seek lawful status for immigrant youth and advocate for system-wide change in the areas of education, access to justice, and health equity – including systemic challenges in accessing mental health resources. Our ultimate goal is a NJ where every young immigrant has lawful status and the opportunity to advance, and where families can stay together and thrive. We want NJ to be a welcoming and inclusive state for all children - a place where every young immigrant has the opportunity to feel secure, advance, and achieve success in their lives.

The Consortium exists to support and empower immigrant children and youth of all ages, from toddlers through young adults, and sometimes beyond. The Consortium has continuously expanded its work since 2015, and is committed to supporting and empowering all immigrant youth, including unaccompanied minors, other undocumented immigrants, youth with an insecure immigration status, and members of mixed-status families. The Consortium’s approach centers the needs of children and youth, but includes programming for adults where it serves the well-being of children and youth, in recognition that children’s wellbeing is often intimately linked to the well-being of the adults in their lives.

The Consortium is a coalition of legal advocates for immigrant children and youth and allied professionals from the fields of healthcare, mental health services, and social work. We work to address and overcome barriers to young immigrants’ thriving in three ways:

We take on systemic advocacy for and with young immigrants and our organizer colleagues, using litigation, legislative and agency advocacy, and other tools. We connect immigrants and grassroots organizations with their professional allies to find solutions for immigrant children and youth, bringing different sectors of civil society together for maximum impact.
We help our members conceptualize, develop, scale and find resources for legal programs that can make the biggest difference for immigrant youth in New Jersey.
We train, educate, and build capacity – both directly with the immigrant community and for attorneys and allied professionals who work with immigrants.
The Consortium’s biggest strength is our network. In addition to our coalition members, we work in community with grassroots immigrant rights and community organizations, healthcare institutions, educators, and other allies of young immigrants across New Jersey.