This article addresses two issues: whether the inequalities faced by cared for children will persist in different stages of their lives and whether these inequalities are dependent on the specific out-of-home care setting, i.e. residential or foster care. The authors examine data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), covering a 50-year period.

Adopting a qualitative approach, this study gave voice to seven adoption applicants in Romania who began the adoption journey with one or more children but did not complete the legal process. The goal of the researchers was to understand their experiences throughout the adoption process and disruption. The present study is part of a larger research project that focused on the resilience of the adoptive family in Romania.

This qualitative exploratory-descriptive study outlines alternative approaches to psychosocial support for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in four municipalities of Vhembe district in Limpopo Province, South Africa, in the form of community-based interventions.

The authors of this study aimed to gain insight into the perceived living environment in different residential youth care settings from the perspectives of 26 youth, 14 parents, and 35 professionals in the Netherlands.

At the end of 2019, an innovative approach was launched in social work with young people in out-of-home care in Riga. This approach included prevention, changes in the form and methods of social work, and planning for the transition period.

This study investigated social orphans through narratives of young people with experiences of growing up in institutional care in Latvia. The study uses the life histories of participants to explore the phenomenon of social orphans.

This retrospective, national-scale, observational e-cohort study of children entering care in Wales looked at the impact of cumulative risks of parental difficulties on the likelihood of care entry and the impact of the parent's sex.

If you’ve watched The Love You Give, you’ll recognise Peter Kamau and his gorgeous son Jedd, who featured in this docustory about orphanages.  

Bringing together interdisciplinary scholarship, Mark Henrickson argues that it is essential to understand and critique social work’s origins in order to work out what to retain and what must change if we are to achieve the vision of a truly global profession.

Orphanage volunteers may have the best of intentions - but they may unwittingly be doing more harm than good, as one ex-volunteer discovered. 

One of our partner organisations and creator of the orphanage volunteering alternative Rok Kern programme, Children in Families was invited to speak about volunteering at an International School in Phnom Penh.

When Eliza was a teenager, her dream was to volunteer in orphanages all over the world. So when she turned 18, she packed her bags and headed to Guatemala to volunteer in an orphanage.

The debate around the pros and cons of international volunteering has been raging for the past decade. With hundreds of articles, blog posts and exposés out there, both in favour and against volunteering overseas, it is difficult to know what to think or where to begin when deciding what program is best to give your time and money. We have pulled together some advice on the main things you need to look out for when researching voluntary work programs, as well as some examples of the types of activities you might like to consider - especially as alternatives for orphanage volunteering placements. 

This book investigates how organizations around the world responded to these dual challenges, identifying solutions, and learning opportunities to help to support young children in ongoing and future crises. Drawing on research and voices from the Global South, this book showcases innovations to mobilize new funds and re-allocate existing resources to protect children during the pandemic.

The long-term consequences of COVID-19 have been tough for children around the world, but even more so for young children already in humanitarian crises, whether due to conflict, natural disasters, or economic and political upheaval. Drawing on research and voices from the Global South, this book showcases innovations to mobilize new funds and reallocate existing resources to protect children during the pandemic.

Prévenir la séparation des familles et favoriser la réinsertion familiale est une enquête de base menée par Changing the Way We Care Haïti visant à informer la conception d'un programme de réforme des soins axé sur la prévention de la séparation des familles et la promotion d'une réunification

The current review synthesizes the literature regarding the impact of placement instability on behavioural and mental health outcomes in foster care children. Three major databases and grey literature sources were searched for all relevant quantitative research published by July 2019.

This phenomenological study explores how five institutionalised Malay adolescents used adaptive strategies towards independent living upon being released from welfare institutions. Five 17-year-old Malay Muslim adolescents, three males and two females, were recruited via purposive sampling for a focus group discussion to gather insights into their plans and strategies to cope with life challenges after being released from their respective welfare institutions.

The focus of this study was to understand youths’ processes of resilience-development through relationships with care professionals in the child welfare system. In this study, the authors held 15 narrative interviews with LGBTQ+ youth between the ages of 14 and 21 years that were living in residential care in Spain.

Although it is a major issue, the health of children and adolescents in care is still mainly explored on the basis of information provided by adults in French studies. This study therefore aims to make up for the lack of studies integrating the young people’s own point of view and to explore certain aspects of health, as reported by the children and adolescents themselves, by comparing the health of children in care with that of children in the general population.

The authors analyzed administrative data from Canada to describe the population of children in out-of-home care, and estimate and compare rates of out-of-home care by province/territory, year, sex/gender, age group and placement type.