Home and Homes for Children is a UK-based charity that works to close orphanages and get the children inside them back to family.
Around the world, more than 5.4 million children are confined in orphanages, even though 80% of them have family they could be living with if they had the right support.
Hope and Homes for Children works in more than 10 countries across Europe, Africa and Asia to give children and families the support they need and change the systems that are putting children in institutions.
Their teams are helping families to stay together or be reunited, and creating new families through fostering and adoption, so that every child can grow up in a safe, loving environment where they can thrive.
They are also working with local authorities, governments and international bodies like the UN and EU to improve their policies and end the institutionalisation of children forever.
To contact Hope and Homes for Children, please fill out the contact form available here.
Where they operate
Headquarters Location
East Clyffe, Salisbury
Wiltshire
SP3 4LZ
United Kingdom
Organization Type
Main Areas of Work
What They Do
Keeping Families Together – Where war, poverty, discrimination or broken systems put pressure on parents to give up their children, Hope and Homes for Children fight to keep families together. Working with care and compassion, listening and understanding, they let families know there’s someone who cares about their situation, and provide them with the hope and support they need to keep their child within their family home.
Reuniting Families – Millions of parents are longing for the children they have been separated from. And children who could be back at home are lost in the bureaucracy of an orphanage. Through local teams including family tracing experts and specialist social workers, Hope and Homes for Children and their partners reconnect children with their loved ones. And once children are reunited, they stay by their side to help them adapt to their new life together.
Creating New Families – Hope and Homes for Children supports children whose birth families can’t look after them or keep them safe, or those who have no family at all. They work with individuals and authorities to find, train and support foster or adoptive parents: adults who they know from experience will love, protect and give security to a child. With their social workers, psychologists and educationalists by their side, new parents can give children the love they need to grow up and thrive in life.
Closing orphanages - Closing an orphanage for good is an extremely complex process that can take many years to complete. Hope and Homes for Children teams work with a range of local and national authorities and organisations - including local councils, community leaders, medical professionals and child protection authorities - in order to achieve that life-changing moment when an orphanage is closed for good and the children once confined within it are instead Back to Family.
Advocating for change - Many governments and regional authorities still use the institutionalisation of children as a childcare solution. By making them aware of the immense harm that placing children in institutions does, and showing the positive impacts that family-based care brings, Hope and Home for Children’s advocacy team is working to change attitudes and reform child care practices on both a national and international level.
HHC Advisory Services - drawing on their global operational delivery and partnering experience, Hope and Homes for Children provides a compelling package of technical support services to governments, UN agencies, local and international NGOs in other countries around the world. They work to bring about the transition of children’s care and protection systems to family-care. They support local initiatives, under local leadership and capability. Their focus is on locally owned, sustainable solutions and impact at scale. They are passionate about protecting the rights of all children, to see them brought up in safe, loving, nurturing families.
Organization Resources
En este informe se presentan los resultados de la investigación llevada adelante en Argentina que tuvo por objetivo construir información sobre las principales políticas, medidas y acciones que se desarrollan a nivel regional orientadas a acompañar el egreso de adolescentes y jóvenes del sistema del cuidados alternativos e indagar respecto de su eficacia, efectividad, sostenibilidad y adecuación a un enfoque de derechos.
This report presents the findings of the 2019-2020 assessment conducted within the Pilot assessment of residential healthcare facilities for children and development of recommendations for reform in five baby homes of Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava and Kherson regions of Ukraine. In addition to the findings from the assessment of baby homes, the report presents results from the region assessments regarding needs in the medical rehabilitation, paediatric palliative care, and social services for children aged 0-6 years and their families.
The purpose of this checklist from the European Expert Group on the transition from institutional to community-based care, with Hope and Homes for Children, is to ensure EU funds in the 2021-2027 programming period contribute to independent living and inclusion in the community, including by supporting desk officers to check the consistency of the measures to transition from institutional to family-based and community-based services for children and the prevention of institutionalisation and separation of children, including with disabilities, from their families.
This study analyzes longitudinal statistics from 18 years of Hope and Homes for Children programs in Romania to demonstrate the cost savings and ability to support a higher number of children at risk if the state were to invest money into programs that allow children to remain in a family environment, rather than be placed in institutional care.
This publication is presented in three parts. Part 1 discusses how seeing Haitian children as part of a complex and beautiful social system can inform best practices in child care reform. Part 2 highlights eight organizations working towards family-based care and the preservation of families and communities. Part 3 provides inspiration for collective action and transformation.
This resource is free for use by organizations or individuals seeking to explore or learn more about expanding family care options for children.
On 21-22 June 2017, the African Child Policy Forum and Better Care Network - with the support of Catholic Relief Services, Family for Every Child, Hope and Homes for Children and Save the Children - convened 40 leaders representing child rights bodies, regional economic communities, national governments and civil society in Nairobi, Kenya for the Africa Expert Consultation: Violence Against Children in All Care Settings.
This presentation provides an overview of violence against children in residential care facilities in Africa.
This report highlights stories of some children, youth and families who have been assisted under the Ishema Mu Muryango program. While each of their stories is unique, all highlight some common themes about institutionalization and child abandonment in Rwanda.
This policy paper from Hope and Homes for Children calls on all the stakeholders that play a role in developing, running, supporting or influencing national care systems to join forces in a collaborative action to eradicate institutional care once and for all.
