This podcast shares the story of Vişinel Balan, a young man who was placed in a state infant centre in Bacău, Romania in 1987, when he was two months old.

Researchers are increasingly using self-report measures of physical, psychological, and sexual violence and neglect for population-based surveys. The current gold-standard measure, the 45-item ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool has been used across the world. This study assesses its adequacy for measuring abuse across countries.

"As many as 1,000 babies born to surrogate mothers in Russia for foreign families have been left stranded in the country by the coronavirus pandemic and closure of international borders," says this article from the Guardian.

In this webinar, hosted by Better Care Network and SOS Children's Villages International, panelists - including careleavers who served as co-trainers in the Leaving Care project - discussed the training, building a supportive network for care leavers, and the support needed to ensure that the rights of young people in alternative care are respected and that they are prepared for an independent life.

This report describes key trends in migrations in the region, detailing information about the number of people on the move, demography (age, sex, country of origin, etc), behavioral patterns, and routes in use - with a focus on children, particularly unaccompanied children.

This ISS study of the child protection system as it particularly relates to alternative care was commissioned by UNICEF Ukraine. This report contains an overview of the child protection and alternative care system in Ukraine based on the process of a desk review and a 10 day fact finding mission in Ukraine in February 2020 undertaken by a team of experts from International Social Service (ISS).

This article presents a study conducted amongst young adults between the ages of 19–35. The aim was to determine the relationship between the information about foster care families and the attitude of young adults towards them.

This paper is divided into two parts: The first details the evidence from the ground, painting the picture of life for children during the pandemic in different European countries with statistics and examples, and giving a set of recommendations on measures that national governments across Europe can take to help protect children from the worst impacts of the crisis relating to the economic impacts on families, loss of services, access to education and targeted measures for children in migration. The second part focuses on recommendations to the EU institutions on how EU policy and funding can support and complement these national-level actions in these challenging times.

Cracks in the System is a new report from Lumos that is the first of its kind to systematically explore the links between institutional care and child trafficking in Europe.

This article from the Atlantic tells the story of Izidor, and others, who grew up in institutional care in Romania and the impact that has had on them as adults.