Children Affected by Poverty and Social Exclusion

Around the world, poverty and social exclusion are driving factors behind the placement of children into alternative care. Families give up their children because they are too poor to care for them, or they feel that it is the best way to help them to access basic services such as education and health care. Discrimination and cultural taboos mean that girls, children with disabilities, ethnic minorities, children with HIV/AIDS and children born out of wedlock, make up a disproportionate number of children abandoned into alternative care.

Poor-quality alternative care leads to a vicious cycle of poverty and inequality. With limited family-based alternative care options in many countries, children often end up in institutional care. Already marginalized by poverty or stigmatization, they risk becoming further excluded from society, as they grow up separated from their families and communities. In the worst cases, inadequate or unsafe care standards expose them to neglect, violence and abuse. When they eventually leave institutional care, young adults may then struggle to reintegrate into their communities and face high rates of homelessness, unemployment, chronic poverty, depression and even suicide.

Greater political and financial commitment is needed to tackle the poverty and social exclusion that drives families to give up their children. This includes wide-ranging measures to combat poverty, discrimination and stigmatization, to change attitudes towards single parenthood and disability, and to adopt social policies promoting family empowerment and parenting skills. Greater priority must also be given to developing good-quality family-based care options, such as foster care and adoption, for the girls and boys who need alternative families.

The documents in this section examine the relationship between poverty, social exclusion and placement of children in alternative care.

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Executive Summary: A Foundation to End Child Poverty: How universal child benefits can build a fairer, more inclusive and resilient future

Save the Children, 2020

This report from Save the Children calls upon governments, donors and other development partners to urgently support an expansion in social protection coverage of children and their caregivers (predominantly women).

A Foundation to End Child Poverty: How universal child benefits can build a fairer, more inclusive and resilient future

Save the Children, 2020

The association of a paraprofessional home visiting intervention with lower child maltreatment rates in First Nation families in Canada: A population-based retrospective cohort study

Mariette Chartier, et al - Children and Youth Services Review, 09 Dec 2019

This article investigates the efficacy of the Families First Home Visiting (FFHV) program, which aims to enhance parenting skills and strengthen relationships between parents and their children.

Pathways of resilience for children facing socio-economic adversities: Experiences from Future Families’ OVC Programmes in South Africa

Pamhidzayi Berejena Mhongera & Antoinette Lombard - Children and Youth Services Review, 28 Nov 2019

This qualitative, phenomenological study explores experiences of resilience among OVC benefiting from programmes implemented by Future Families (a non-profit organisation) in the Gauteng Province of South Africa.

System Involvement among Young Adults Experiencing Homelessness

Sarah C. Narendorf, et al - Children and Youth Services Review, 23 Nov 2019

This study used a dataset of 1426 young adults experiencing homelessness (YAEH) from 7 different US cities to examine the historical risk and resilience characteristics of those involved in foster care alone, juvenile justice alone, both systems (dual status), and no system involvement.

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For Every Child, Every Right: The Convention on the Rights of the Child at a Crossroads

UNICEF, 01 Nov 2019

Published in connection with the 30th anniversary of the Convention, this report is intended as an advocacy tool to both celebrate the achievements of the past three decades and generate dialogue on the critical work that remains – especially for children who have been left behind.

Indigenous Children and Young People in Residential Care: A Systematic Scoping Review

Kathomi Gatwiri, Lynne McPherson, Natalie Parmenter, Nadine Cameron, Darlene Rotumah - Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 30 Oct 2019

This article provides an overview of literature investigating the needs of Indigenous children in residential care facilities in Australia.

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The Reunification of American Indian Children in Long-Term Foster Care

Ashley L. Landers, Jennifer L. Bellamy, Sharon M. Danes, Alan McLuckie, Sandy White Hawk - Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 18 Oct 2019

The literature examining reunification for American Indian children reveals mixed findings regarding racial differences. Studies that isolate the impact of race on reunification while controlling for other covariates are needed, and this study fills that gap.

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Analytical Brief on the 2020 Social Sector Budget in Zambia

Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (ZIPAR), 01 Oct 2019

This report provides a brief analysis of social sector spending in Zambia.

The Family Matters Report 2019

SNAICC – National Voice for our Children, 01 Oct 2019

The Family Matters report sets out what governments are doing to turn the tide on over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care in Australia and the outcomes for children and their families.