Melody Curtis, Laura Horvath, Jared Scheppman, and Kelly Strong discuss the journey from traditional child sponsorship models to a new paradigm that champions community empowerment. They also tackle the ethical dilemmas and strategic decisions that are reshaping the way we support vulnerable children around the world.

The webinar took place on 30 April 2024 and focused on Chapter IV of the Guidelines: Deinstitutionalization grounded in the dignity and diversity of persons with disabilities, and how they relate to children and other children and other at-risk populations, such as elders and women.

Do you work in a children’s home and have wondered whether moving children to family care is possible? Join Sisters worldwide to explore WHY children need families and HOW your program can safely move children to family care.  &nbsp

This international webinar explores ‘The Origins of Social Care and Social Work’ (Policy Press, 2022) in which Professor Mark Henrickson (Auckland, New Zealand) argues that European and North American notions of helping – or managing – poor and marginalised people have deep roots in religious texts and traditions which continue to influence contemporary social work.

In this global study, the authors used data from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP), a longitudinal study of institutionally-reared and family-reared children, to test how caregiving quality during infancy is associated with average EEG power over the first 3.5 years of life in alpha, beta, and theta frequency bands, and associations with later executive function (EF) at age 8 years. 

The PACE parenting approach was developed by Dr Dan Hughes for parents and carers of children who are adopted or live in foster or kinship care families. PACE stands for Playfullness, Acceptance. Curiosity, and Empathy and is an attitude has proved to be helpful for many professionals working in adoption, fostering or kinship care services. The aim of PACE is to allow the child to establish a positive and reciprocal relationship with their parents or carers and to experience relationships as 'safe'.

Delia Pop, the director of Tanya's Dream Fund, leads grant giving and advocacy strategies in Bulgaria along with working with UNICEF. In this episode she shares her extensive knowledge on creating strong strategy reforms.

The Summit of the Future (SoTF) presents an important opportunity for all young people, particularly youth with disabilities, to have their say on what that future looks like and for their national and other world leaders to listen and act accordingly. This side event is an opportunity to hear from a range of speakers involved in youth movements on: - How they are working to ensure that youth with disabilities in all their diversity are included in Summit of the Future engagement.

In this episode Amanda Griffith of Family for Every Child is joined by representatives of three member organisations who are working to support children's mental health and wellbeing across three continents.

The International Disability Alliance (IDA) is looking for an experienced communication officer, who will be responsible for the co-coordination of the Working Group and for communication activities that fall under the responsibility of the GDS-secretariat.