The COVID-19 pandemic is destined to leave millions more children without family caregivers. Increases in mortality of parents and other caregivers in the COVID-19 pandemic are accompanied by increases in extreme vulnerability from loss of livelihoods, schooling, health recovery and usual sources of service provision and support. This webinar aims to bring an understanding of how COVID-19 will affect the lives of children, how lessons learned from prior emergencies can be adapted, and how an understanding of complex adversities can maximize the effectiveness of our response.

Recent international research has warned of the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on vulnerable children. However, little is known regarding the in-care population. The objective of this study was to find out how children in residential care perceived the influence of the COVID-19 lockdown in their everyday life, relationships and subjective well-being. Participants and setting: 856 children from 10 to 17 years old (Mage = 15.5, males = 71.2%, females = 28.8%) living in residential centres in Catalonia.

Providing effective mental health services to unaccompanied children released from federal immigration custody is both critically important and incredibly challenging. Developed by children’s rights attorneys and mental health experts on trauma and immigration, this Guide is grounded in the voices and experiences of unaccompanied children.

This report found that the types of abuse and the characteristics of both abused children and offenders in Saudi Arabia saw significant changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sexual and emotional abuses were reported more frequently, and the male gender is considered to feature more commonly in reports prior to the pandemic era than during the pandemic.

Findings of this report suggest that early screenings for trauma and behavioral health needs may provide important information that could be used to identify children's needs, make appropriate service referrals, establish well-matched placements, and support resource parents and birth parents toward better permanency outcomes.

In France, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a general lockdown from mid-March to mid-May 2020, forcing families to remain confined. This study found a significant increase in the relative frequency of young children hospitalized for physical abuse from 2017 (0.053%) to 2020 (0.073%).

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.

This paper promotes a system strengthening approach to care reform. It begins with an explanation of child protection and care and the relationship between these two concepts. It goes on to explain why system strengthening is needed to improve children’s care, and how care reform can be carried out systematically, using a range of examples from across the Eastern and Southern Africa region. The paper is aimed at UNICEF country office staff, government and others working on children’s care and protection in the region.

Gatekeeping es el término que describe el mecanismo, proceso o pasos específicos involucrados en la toma de decisiones relacionadas con el cuidado de las niñas, niños y adolescentes (NNA) donde exista la posibilidad de riesgo de separación familiar, o pérdida del cuidado parental.  

This Gatekeeping Factsheet, targeting those engaged in care decisions, including government actors/institutions, civil society organizations, practitioners and parents/caregivers explains the objectives of gatekeeping and essential components of a gatekeeping system, core principles of effective gatekeeping and signs that a gatekeeping system is operating well or needs to be strengthened.

This second webinar in the 'Introducing Guidance for Alternative Care Provision During COVID-19' webinar series hosted on 28 January 2021, is aimed at policy makers and explains their role in developing policies and guidance to prevent family separation during an outbreak.

The first webinar, hosted on 27 January 2021, is aimed at health practitioners with the goal of introducing the guidance and helping practitioners understand their role in preventing family separation and supporting unaccompanied and separated children.

To complement the CIF partner interventions targeting the child and family and to enhance the sustainability of reintegration efforts, the project is using a Hotspot approach to address community-level, environmental factors that may contribute to a child’s increased risk of family separation. The collective application of the Hotspot approach is completely innovative in the Zambian child care reform space. In this brief, we spotlight the Hotspot approach and promising observations to date in undertaking this strategy.

Building on the CIF+ Learning Brief Vol 1.pdf, Volume 2 draws from CIF+ partner programming experience, achievements and lessons learned. This document outlines lessons for stakeholders that are interested in child reintegration efforts and highlights examples of the pilot as it works to support children and families in Zambia.

A systematic review exploring the lived experience of matching children with foster families and examining the evidence on the outcomes of matching decisions.

This report presents the very first quantitative analysis of the risk of sexual violence against children in conflict for the period 1990-2019.

This study aims to answer two research questions: a) How do youth and staff/professionals define/conceptualize authentic youth engagement (AYE)? and b) What are youths’ and staff/professionals’ recommended strategies for authentically engaging youth? Thirty stakeholder interviews (15 youth, 15 staff/professionals) and 81 surveys (46 youth, 35 staff/professionals) were completed.

This bulletin provides information for child welfare professionals about the importance of permanency for youth and strategies for achieving it. Permanency efforts for youth should include both legal permanency (e.g., reunification, adoption, kinship care) and relational permanency (i.e., a relationship or connection with a caring adult, such as a relative, neighbor, service provider, teacher, or other important person in the youth's life). These adults may provide lifelong support that can help youth transition to adulthood and may even become a legal permanent option for the youth.