Refugee Social Services Provider Manual
Acronyms, Terms, and Definitions
Revision 05-1; Effective April 1, 2005
Adult — An individual 18 years of age or older.
Applicant — An individual who has applied for refugee social services and is waiting on an eligibility determination.
Asylee — An individual who has been granted asylum under section 208 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
Asylee applicant — An individual who has applied for but has not been granted status under section 208 of the INA.
BEST — Basic English Skills Test
CFR — Code of Federal Regulations
CHIP — Texas Children's Health Insurance Program
Case management services — Assessment, planning, and determining referrals for services and monitoring the refugee's participation in these services.
Cash assistance — Financial assistance to refugees, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Social Security Income, Refugee Cash Assistance, and, if available, general state assistance.
Contractor — An organization that has a contract to provide refugee social services with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC).
DFPS — Texas Department of Family and Protective Services
DOJ — Department of Justice
DOS — Department of State
Discretionary grants — Grants targeted at specific refugee populations at the discretion of the director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
EOIR — Executive Office for Immigration Review
ESL — English as a Second Language
ESP — Employment Services Plan
Economic self-sufficiency — Earning a total family income at a level that enables a family unit to support itself without receiving a cash assistance grant.
Employability plan — An employment plan designed to lead to the earliest possible employment in the shortest time period.
Family Self-Sufficiency Plan (FSSP) — A comprehensive family assessment and self-sufficiency plan required for all employment programs.
Family unit — Individual adult, married individuals without children, or parents, or custodial relatives with minor children who are ineligible for TANF, who live in the same household.
Fund accounting — A system of accounting that requires separate records and allocations for each grant or source of funding.
HHSC — Texas Health and Human Services Commission
INA — Immigration and Nationality Act
Incentive payment — A one-time payment for early employment.
LEP — Limited English Proficiency
MAA — Mutual Assistance Agency, a nonprofit corporation that has no less than 51% of the Board of Directors or governing board comprised of refugees or former refugees, including both refugee men and women.
MELT — Mainstream English Language Training
MNIL — Medically Needy Income Limit
Nepotism — Hiring family or friends when that relationship could be perceived as a conflict of interest in providing services to refugees.
OIRA — Office of Immigration and Refugee Affairs under HHSC
ORR — Office of Refugee Resettlement
P-3 — Public/Private Partnership, a state-administered option for the provision of refugee cash assistance through contracts or grants with local resettlement agencies.
Participant — A person who has been determined eligible for refugee social services.
RDC — Refugee Data Collection System/Refugee Data Center
RSS — Refugee Social Services Grant
Refugee — An individual admitted to the United States under section 207 of the INA.
Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA) — A time-limited cash assistance program available to eligible refugees who are ineligible for TANF.
Refugee Medical Assistance (RMA) — A time-limited medical assistance program provided to eligible refugees who are ineligible for Medicaid.
TAC — Texas Administrative Code
TAG — Targeted Assistance Grant
TANF — Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
Title IV-B plan — State plan for providing child welfare services to children in the state under part B of Title IV of the Social Security Act.
UNHCR — United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
USCIS — United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
Unaccompanied Refugee Minor (URM)
— a person under 18 years old:- who entered the United States unaccompanied by and not destined to a parent or close non-parental adult relative or adult with a clear and court-verifiable claim to custody of the minor;
- who has no parents in the United States; and
- who has been identified by the INS as an unaccompanied minor.
VOLAG — Voluntary Resettlement Agency
Vendor payment — Payment made on behalf of a RCA participant for rent or utilities.
Victim of a severe form of trafficking — An adult individual certified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a victim of a severe form of trafficking.
WIC — Women, Infants, and Children