Breaking Barriers, Reuniting Families, Restoring Hope

VECINA’s ReUnite Project provides pro bono legal assistance to sponsors of detained unaccompanied immigrant children in order to help them navigate the complexities of the reunification process. Since ReUnite launched in March of 2021, we have provided reunification and post-release support to over 1,400 unaccompanied children. ReUnite is the only program in the United States that provides pro bono legal assistance to sponsors to help them secure the release of detained unaccompanied minors.

We recognize the critical role our referring partners play in connecting us with sponsors in need of reunification assistance. We happily accept referrals from UC legal service providers in the Acacia network, the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, UC care providers, and other community service providers working with unaccompanied minors or their loved ones. If you would like to refer a case for assistance through the ReUnite Project, please review the information below. You can also click here to learn more about the ReUnite Project.

ReUnite Project Referral Status

Referral Acceptance Status: CLOSED


Our ReUnite team at VECINA will be short staffed for a couple of weeks, so we have paused our referral acceptance through 2/21/25 to be able to address each of the cases in our pipeline with the time and care they deserve. Dedicated ReUnite staff will still be in the office during this referral acceptance pause to continue to address our ongoing referrals and respond to your questions.

Given that case details and needs can shift rapidly, we kindly request that you please refrain from sending us any new referrals until we resume our referral acceptance on 2/24/25 so we can be sure that any cases for us to address after that point are for sponsors who still need assistance. 

Before sending us a referral, please always remember to check this page to confirm that our referral acceptance status is “OPEN.”  

Thanks so much for your understanding!

Referral Form

If the referral acceptance status above is listed as “OPEN,”, please complete this ReUnite Referral Form and email it to ReUnite Project Director Molly Chew at molly@vecina.org, copying ReUnite Project Manager Karen Cepeda at karen@vecina.org. When we receive your referral, we will reply to you as quickly as possible.

Flyers for Sponsors

When you refer a case to VECINA’s ReUnite Project, we know that it may be helpful for you to be able to share a flyer with the sponsor regarding our work. You are welcome to share the flyers below with sponsors, which include our ReUnite hotline number where sponsors can reach us if they have any questions.

English
Spanish
Haitian Creole
French
Portuguese
Dari
Russian
Ukrainian
Arabic
Mam
Q’eqchi
Kaqchikel
K’iche
Chuj

We intend to have these flyers translated into more languages as time goes on.  You may notice that the flyers in the indigenous languages look a slightly different from the rest of the flyers because we have not yet had a chance to get these flyers translated into the newest version.  However, the phone number for our hotline and the explanation of what we do are still the same on every flyer.

Questions?

If you have any questions about the ReUnite Project, our current referral acceptance status, the process of referring a sponsor for reunification assistance, or you are unsure whether a case is appropriate to refer to ReUnite, please don’t hesitate to contact ReUnite Project Director Molly Chew at molly@vecina.org.

We are grateful for your continued partnership and we look forward to helping reunite more families!