Alliance for Children Everywhere

Alliance for Children Everywhere (ACE) is a Christian Faith-Based organization that works with local leadership to partner together and develop programs that promote the institution of family through family empowerment, education, and child welfare.

The vision of ACE is to see every child in a secure family and enriching environment. Their vision is being achieved by strengthening vulnerable families, family reunification, local foster-to-adopt programs, education and economic empowerment.

Their primary work is reintegration and domestic foster-to-adopt. They facilitate reintegrations with the government, when appropriate and also sensitize, recruit, and train domestic families interested in foster care and adoption. When reintegration is not possible, they look to place a child into an alternate, permanent, family. They also help to facilitate training social workers and caregivers/parents in trust-based relational interventions for children separated from family. The organization has temporary crisis homes for abandoned or orphaned infants. They also offer services, such as nutrition and financial literacy programs, to empower and support families and keep them together.

ACE Logo

Where they operate

Contact this organization about:

Accessing their learning resources or tools
Care reforms in the countries where they operate
Finding out more about their work and experience
Guidance/technical support
Networking and partnerships
Other (detail below)
Referrals to their services
Support in transitioning residential care centers to family-based care

Organization Size

Size of the organization
Large (50 employees and sub-contractors or more)

Headquarters Location

Zambia

Main Areas of Work

Residential Care Service Transition Support

Location
Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan
Implementation
Directly

Supports they have offered, or plan to offer, include:

  • Introducing the importance of family care and reintegration to leaders in the organization
  • Strategy and planning for the transition
  • Donor and board engagement
  • Community awareness raising and engagement
  • Partnerships
  • Government engagement and linking to systems reforms
  • Assessments of children and families
  • Family tracing
  • Preparing children and families for transition
  • Social work or case management training or support
  • Staffing adjustments or training
  • Use of buildings and other assets
  • Developing new programs, including:
    • Family and community strengthening
    • Alternative family care (including kinship care, foster care, adoption)
    • Advocacy
  • Provide funding for the transition
  • General coaching or consultation
  • Onsite training
  • Online training
  • Onsite visits/meetings
  • Phone calls/video conference
  • Provision of standards and written guidance or tools for transitioning
  • Connecting with others or building a network

ACE plans to support transitioning throughout Southern Africa. They determine which organizations to work with based on need, scope of work, partnership parameters, etc.

Emergency Care

Location
Zambia
Implementation
Country Office

For infants and young children

Foster Care

Location
Zambia
Implementation
Country Office

Adoption

Location
Zambia
Implementation
Country Office

into local families

Family Reunification

Location
Zambia
Implementation
Country Office

Children 0-5 into nuclear or extended families

Economic Strengthening

Location
Zambia
Implementation
Country Office

Savings, loans, skills training, peer groups

Early Childhood Development (ECD)

Location
Zambia
Implementation
Country Office

Prevention of child separation

Location
Zambia
Implementation
Country Office

Includes economic strengthening and child nutrition

Primary education

Location
Zambia
Implementation
Country Office

For underserved children

Secondary education

Location
Zambia
Implementation
Country Office

High aptitude underserved children

Strategic Planning

Location
East/Southern Africa
Implementation
Directly

Organizational Change Management

Location
East/Southern Africa
Implementation
Directly

We asked this organization to tell us a little more about their learning and knowledge sharing practices. Here is what they said

What area of your practice are you most proud of and why?

We are most proud of our work in supporting systemic change toward family based care.  This includes working closely with the Government of Zambia, Peer organizations, and the global family care network to develop best practices, support the formalization of government regulations, and innovate new avenues for family based care, such as emergency foster care pilots.

What area of your work has resulted in the most significant learning for your organization?

Our most significant learning comes from direct engagement with families who are vulnerable and have children whom are at risk of separation, within institutional care, or have reintegrated from institutional care.  Healthy families are the centre of our mission, and we learn the most from all families striving to improve their condition.  Secondly, learn a tremendous amount from the direct experience of children, especially those directly within our care.

What are the top 2 pieces of advice or wisdom you’d offer to others from this learning?

The first piece of advice is that each child and family is unique, and there is not a ‘cookie cutter’ approach to family reintegration.  A binding principle for us is ‘do no harm’, which favors a humble, cautious, and evidence based approach.  The second piece of advice is look at the child and family reintegration from a holistic sense- how the reintegration effects each member of the family, not only the reintegrated child; and how each family member is situated in a web of local and community relationships, responsibilities, and constraints.  Lastly, to consider the full spectrum of stakeholders and service providers, especially including government, as part of a vital network that needs to be engaged and mobilized is support of the family.  No organization can do it all alone!

As an organization how do you engage in reflection and evaluation of your work, and incorporate learning into your practice?

Our organization has regular weekly time for reflection and sharing, and we engage in formal ‘lessons learned’ exercises.  As move toward stronger Monitoring and Evaluation, our goals are measured in terms of impact for beneficiaries. We evaluate performance against these, and reflect on the obstacles or successes in relation to these goals. We also have feedback mechanisms that incorporate information stories, and feedback from beneficiaries, and periodically review hard data on our program impacts.  At times these issues are written up and shared internally or externally to accelerate our learning and share this information.

As an organization how do you collaborate and participate in learning and knowledge exchange with other organizations, networks?

ACE collaborates regularly with other organizations at the national and global level to both implement programs and exchange knowledge and learning. An example of this is our leadership in establishing a ‘Zambia Without Orphans’ chapter in Lusaka, and our recent write-up of a case study examining impacts and cost-per-beneficiary of our institutional vs. family-based programs.  We also seek to accelerate transformation by working with a cohort oc peer OVC organizations in Zambia, and by providing capacity building services to organizations within the Southern and East Africa region.

Organization Resources

Alliance for Children Everywhere (ACE)

In this video, Tamara Mwale of Alliance for Children Everywhere (ACE) Zambia shares a story of reintegration. At ACE, whenever possible, the team seeks to reintegrate children with biological family.

Better Care Network, Alliance for Children Everywhere

Alliance for Children Everywhere (ACE) Zambia is a US-funded organization that transitioned from providing residential care in Zambia to pioneering family-based care, including foster care, and supporting other residential care service providers to transition. With important links to the Zambian government, ACE Zambia has been a key actor in supporting the development of policies, programs and guidelines that are now utilized across the country.