This virtual study tour aims to provide you with an overview of care reform in Malawi from the comfort of your own home. Care reform relates to the care of children. It refers to efforts to improve the legal and policy frameworks, structures, services, supports and resources that determine and deliver alternative care, prevent family separation and support families to care for children well.

Research has shown the harm of orphanage care on children’s health, development and wellbeing and how orphanage volunteering is working to perpetuate these institutional systems which separate children from their families and communities. There is now a global movement to end both practices. These key policy recommendations were published as part of the "Put Children First: End Orphanage Care" campaign.

The current article investigated the financial impact of transitioning to a family-based model of care, donor engagement practices used in this process, and changes in donor support resulting from the transition.

The Child Rescue Centre was the first orphanage in Sierra Leone to successfully complete a transition from residential to family-based care. This case study highlights some of the key dynamics that arose throughout the transition of the orphanage and examines how those dynamics both influenced the transition and determined the type of support provided as well as the most appropriate transition strategy.

Research suggests that children develop best in families, but millions currently reside in residential care centers. Using a mixed methods design, the current study examined (1) antecedents to transition, (2) key elements in the process and (3) outcomes of transitioning models of care.

A fost efectuată o evaluare cuprinzătoare a copiilor și adolescenților care trăiesc în îngrijire rezidențială identificând că există un mecanism complex de evaluare, axat pe oferirea unei vederi de 360° asupra nevoilor și interesului superior al copilului.

Millions of persons with disabilities, children and older persons live in congregate settings. Whilst the motivation for providing such care may be well-intentioned, that is not always the case. Many of those settings are ‘institutional’, with residents denied autonomy and choice, provided with poor quality health and social care, and experiencing social isolation, neglect or abuse. This report summarises the evidence and experiences of persons living in congregate settings in general, and in terms of the impact of COVID-19, to understand the barriers to deinstitutionalisation, and to highlight the approaches that have sought to overcome those barriers.

Families First Project is a program initiated by Save the Children in Indonesia in collaboration with the Indonesian Government to promote a safe family environment for raising and caring for children, either in their own families or in family and community-based care alternatives.

This is the summary report for a pilot project spearheaded by Miracle Foundation India with its two partner organizations which were two Children's Care Institutions (CCIs) in the Indore District in central India. The goal of the pilot was to ‘create a replicable modal for other CCIs to effectively implement family based and alternative care through systemic change by engaging multiple stakeholders’.

UNICEF Bulgaria's project, "Family for Every Child," aimed to demonstrate that viable alternatives to institutionalization exist, and that as long as a network of suitable support services is in place, deinstitutionalization is achievable. UNICEF Bulgaria commissioned this evaluation to establish whether the project had been successful