A report on the evidence of children’s wellbeing relating economic strengthening programs and the need for expanded monitoring and evaluations.

In the attached document, Lumos reports that 8 million children worldwide are in institutions globally.  

This 6-minute video from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University explains the importance of human interaction with a caregiver to an infant’s brain development and the dangers of neglect to a child’s cognitive development, particularly the neglect that occurs in institutional settings.

The Global Survey on Violence against Children, conducted under the auspices of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence against Children, examines the measures in place around the world to ensure follow-up to the recommendations set out in the 2006 UN Study on Violence against Children.

This literature review by the Rees Centre for Research in Fostering and Education at the University of Oxford was undertaken to identify the ways in which carers’ children might be more effectively prepared and supported when their families are fostering.

This inter-agency, desk-based research aims to arrive at a clearer understanding of reintegration practices for separated children in low and lower-middle income countries. The research pulls together learning from practitioners and academics working with a range of separated children, such as those torn from their families by emergencies, children who have been trafficked or migrated for work, and children living in institutions or on the streets.

In this video, Philip A. Fisher, a senior fellow at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University presents at NBC News’ 2013 Education Nation Summit, explaining why positive, reciprocal interactions between caregivers and children can have enormous positive effects on children’s development and lay the groundwork for a prosperous future.

Using social justice as the conceptual foundation, the authors present the structural barriers to socially just intercountry adoptions (ICAs) that can exploit and oppress vulnerable children and families participating in ICAs. They argue that such practices threaten the integrity of social work practice in that arena and the survival of ICA as a placement option.

The Millennium Development Goals will come to an end in 2015 and discussions are currently taking place on what framework will replace them. Children’s participation is crucial to these discussions. Between July 2012 and March 2013, members of Family for Every Child consulted with children living in seven different countries. This report summarizes the main findings that emerged from these consultations.

This report provides a review of international and national models of engagement, support and advocacy for parents who have contact with child protection systems. How statutory child protection systems engage with parents ultimately affects the outcomes for children, including safety, permanency and wellbeing. While social work practices that emphasise people’s self-determination and strengths are recognised as fundamental to eliciting change in parents when care standards have faltered, there is widespread acknowledgment of the struggle child protection authorities have to meaningfully engage parents and families.