Professional foster families in the reunification process—Polish experience

Jan P. Basiaga, Anna Róg, Beata Zięba‐Kołodziej - Child & Family Social Work

This study examined the extent to which professional foster families fulfil their tasks to reintegrate families, what attitudes professional foster families assume towards the idea of reintegration, and to what extent and how professional foster families support a child separated from his or her family and parents in the process of reintegration.

Promoting Successful Transitions Beyond Institutional Care: A Programme-based Service Delivery Model Linked to a Case Management System

Pamhidzayi Berejena Mhongera, Antoinette Lombard - Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk

This paper reports on findings from an evaluation study of two institutions providing transition programmes to adolescent girls transitioning from institutional care in Zimbabwe.

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Serving clients and the community better: A mixed‐methods analysis of benefits experienced when organizations collaborate in child welfare

Marianna L. Colvin & Shari E. Miller - Child & Family Social Work

Data from extensive qualitative interviews (n = 67) and a survey instrument (n = 80) are used in this study to examine the perceived benefits experienced when organizations interact in community‐wide child welfare practice.

Children with disabilities: Deprivation of liberty in the name of care and treatment

Shantha Rau Barriga, Jane Buchanan, Emina Ćerimović, Kriti Sharma - Human Rights Watch

This article focuses on the confinement of children with disabilities to institutions, social care centers, psychiatric hospitals, and informal traditional healing centers in which children may be detained on the basis of their disability and with no other options for care.

Residential child care workers: Relationship based practice in a culture of fear

Teresa Brown, Karen Winter, Nicola Carr - Child & Family Social Work

In a contemporary context dominated by reports of the historical institutional abuse of children and young people in residential children's homes, and where the voice of workers is largely absent, this study explores the views and experiences of 26 workers in the Republic of Ireland regarding relationship‐based practice.

Explaining Self-Reported Resilience in Child-Protection Social Work: The Role of Organisational Factors, Demographic Information and Job Characteristics

Paula McFadden, John Mallett, Anne Campbell, Brian Taylor - The British Journal of Social Work

This paper presents results from a cross-sectional survey and reports findings from a sample of 162 Northern Irish social workers.

“It’s Better Late Than Never”: A Community-Based HIV Research and Training Response to Supporting Mothers Living with HIV Who Have Child Welfare Involvement

Saara Greene, Allyson Ion, Gary Dumbrill, Doe O'Brien Teengs, Kerrigan Beaver, and Mary-Elizabeth Vaccaro - Journal of Law and Social Policy

This paper presents the qualitative analysis of pre- and post- focus groups with Children’s Aid Societies (CAS) workers who participated in the Positive Parenting Pilot Project (P4) and the emerging practice implications for working with families living with and affected by HIV.

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Anti-Black Racism, Bio-Power, and Governmentality: Deconstructing the Suffering of Black Families Involved with Child Welfare

Doret Phillips - Journal of Law and Social Policy

This article focuses on how colonialism, anti-Black racism and white supremacy are embodied by Ontario’s child welfare system in relation to narratives of suffering experienced by Black families involved with this sector.

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Giidosendiwag (We Walk Together): Creating Culturally Based Supports for Urban Indigenous Youth in Care

Nancy Stevens, Rachel Charles, Lorena Snyder - Journal of Law and Social Policy

In Ontario, as elsewhere in the country, there are limited Indigenous-specific resources to assist in strengthening Indigenous youth, families, and communities. This article explores how that might be changed by using the Anishnaabeg Youth in Transition Program at Niijkiwendidaa Anishnaabekwewag Services Circle, based in Peterborough, Ontario, as one model of service delivery.

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Round Table Expert Meeting Children’s Care and DHS/MICS Data: Final Meeting Report

Better Care Network

The Better Care Network (BCN) and the Child Protection Monitoring and Evaluation Reference Group (MERG) organized a two-day round table meeting between 9-11 September 2014, to explore how data regarding the living and care situations of children can be better used to provide insight into their vulnerability, and to guide more targeted policies, services and interventions on their behalf.

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Round Table Meeting on children’s care and DHS/MICS data: Background Note

Florence Martin, Better Care Network

The aim of this initiative is to inform the development of an inter-agency technical brief that explains what household level data is available through DHS and MICS that is critical to better understanding and monitoring of trends and patterns in children’s living arrangements and care status, and how the data can and should be extracted and used to inform policy and programmes at country and international levels. 

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Explaining the Economic Disparity Gap in the Rate of Substantiated Child Maltreatment in Canada

David Rothwell, Jaime Wegner-Lohin, Elizabeth Fast, Kaila de Boer, Nico Trocmé, Barbara Fallon, and Tonino Esposito - Journal of Law and Social Policy

The purpose of this study is to understand the prevalence of economic hardship in the child welfare system and explain the economic disparity gap.

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Guatemala: A Un Año de la Masacre de las Niñas

CEN

Esta llamada a la acción se propone activar, o profundizar y fortalecer —según el estado de avance en cada país— apuntan a poner fin al acogimiento de niños y niñas en centros residenciales sin que éste responda a los principios de necesidad e idoneidad encuadrados en las Directrices de Naciones Unidas sobre las modalidades de cuidado alternativo de los niños.

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Professional dilemmas and occupational constraints in child welfare workers' relationships with children and youth in foster care

Robert Lindahl & Anders Bruhn - Children and Youth Services Review

The aim of this article is to study child welfare workers' individual and collective experiences of and expectations about their occupational role and responsibilities in their administrative and relational work with children and youth in foster care.

Preparedness for Emancipation of Youth Leaving Alternative Care in Serbia

Anita Burgund Isakov and Jasna Hrnčić - International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies

In order to define what support is necessary for the successful emancipation of young people leaving alternative care in Serbia, this study of 150 young people in care aims to analyse both their preparedness for leaving alternative care, and whether the type of placement (kinship, foster, or residential) makes a difference to the level of preparedness.

Orphans and Scholastic Performance in Mankweng Circuit: Policy implications for Limpopo Province

M Magampa, T Sodi and K Sobane - Human Sciences Research Council

This policy brief draws from the findings of a study which investigated the academic performance of orphaned learners aged between eight and ten years from ten public primary schools in Mankweng Circuit of Limpopo Province, South Africa.

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Child Living Conditions and Orphanhood Status in Uganda: an Extension of the Application of the Intrinsic Value Approach to Child Poverty Measurement

Cyprian Misinde - Child Indicators Research

In this study Child Living Conditions which take on many dimensions are computed using the intrinsic value approach. The authors tested the hypothesis that the average living conditions of orphans were less than the average living conditions of non-orphans in Uganda in 2011.

Children’s experiences of violence: Evidence from the Young Lives study in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam

Kirrily Pells and Virginia Morrow - Young Lives

In this summative report from Young Lives, an international study of childhood poverty, authors Kirrily Pells and Virginia Morrow highlight the study’s key findings on violence affecting children, exploring what children say about violence, how it affects them, and the key themes that emerge from a systematic analysis of the children’s accounts from study countries of Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam.

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Using a Systems Approach at the Community-level in a Human Resource Constrained Context: The Youthpower Action Project in Mozambique

4Children, Catholic Relief Services

This case study is one in a series of case studies highlighting different aspects of a case management system and referral mechanisms utilized by OVC programs. The case study presents a program in Mozambique that could be identified as a hub and spoke model of referral mechanism.

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Working in Partnership to Improve Children’s Safety and Well-being: The May’khethele Programme in South Africa

Coordinating Comprehensive Care for Children (4Children), Catholic Relief Services

This case study is one in a series of case studies highlighting different aspects of a case management system and referral mechanisms utilized by OVC programs. The case study looks at the work of the Children in Distress Network (CINDI) in the uMgungundlovu District of KwaZulu-Natal Province (KZN) of South Africa.

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A golden thread? The relationship between supervision, practice, and family engagement in child and family social work

David Wilkins, Amy Lynch, Vivi Antonopoulou - Child & Family Social Work

In this study, using paired observations of group supervision and family meetings alongside interviews with parents, the authors explored the link between supervision, practice, and engagement.

Is kinship failing? Views on informal support by families in contact with social services in Ghana

Esmeranda Manful & Ebenezer Cudjoe - Child & Family Social Work

This paper asks the question "what contribution are kin and other informal social support networks providing to the care and safety of children of such families?" The paper presents findings from 15 families receiving services from the Department of Social Welfare in Sekondi, Ghana.

Maintain, Strengthen, Expand - How the EU Can Support the Transition from Institutional to Family- and Community-Based Care in the Next Multiannual Financial Framework

Opening Doors for Europe's Children

This publication from Opening Doors for Europe's Children calls upon the EU to maintain, strengthen and expand the use of funds so they make a greater impact and go further to eliminate institutions for children across Europe and beyond.

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Between Professional Norms and Professionalism Risk Assessment and Decision-Making of Arab Social Workers Regarding Children at Risk

Hani Nouman, Guy Enosh, Amal Jarjoura - Research on Social Work Practice

This study examined the four factors that might bias child risk assessment and recommendation of treatment for children at high risk among Arab social workers in Israel.

A Call to Action to Leave No Child Behind: An open letter in support of a 2019 Rights of the Child resolution on children without parental care

The signatories of this open letter (including SOS Children's Villages, Better Care Network, and other partners) seek your support in calling for the 2019 United Nations General Assembly resolution on the Rights of the Child to focus on children without parental care

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