Universal Periodic Review – Bulgaria 2015: Lumos’ recommendations to protect the human rights of children in the deinstitutionalisation process in Bulgaria

Georgette Mulheir, Chief Executive - Lumos

In this paper, Lumos reviews Bulgaria’s national strategy on deinstitutionalisation, adopted in 2010, and provides recommendations for ensuring the rights of children in the process.

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Development and piloting of a treatment foster care program for older youth with psychiatric problems

J. Curtis McMillen, Sarah Carter Narendorf, Debra Robinson, Judy Havlicek, Nicole Fedoravicius, Julie Bertram, David McNelly - Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health

This paper reports on the development and piloting of a manualized treatment foster care program in the US designed to step down older youth with high psychiatric needs from residential programs to treatment foster care homes.

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Information Packet: Emotional and Psychological Well-Being of Children in Foster Care

Shoshana Indyk - National Center for Child Welfare Excellence

This information packet presents an overview of facts, statistics, policies, legislation, best practices, model programs, and additional resources related to the US child welfare system and the emotional and psychological well-being of children involved in that system.

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Research-Practice Partnerships for Implementation of Evidence-Based Practices in Child Welfare and Child Mental Health: A White Paper

Lawrence A. Palinkas, Cherry Short, and Marleen Wong - School of Social Work, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

This paper addresses the disconnect between research and practice in regards to child welfare and child mental health services in the US.

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Residential school placements for children and young people with intellectual disabilities: Their use and implications for Adult Social Care

Nick Gore, Serena Brady, Magnus Cormack, Peter McGill, Jacqui Shurlock, Freddy Jackson-Brown, Caroline Reid, Rosey Singh, Alexandra Legge, Maria Saville and Sarah Wedge - NIHR School for Social Care Research

The current review collates research and policy regarding use of residential schools for children and young people with intellectual disabilities in the UK and transition from these settings to adult services.

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Going Beyond Trauma Informed Care (TIC) Training for Child Welfare Supervisors and Frontline Workers: The Need for System Wide Policy Changes Implementing TIC practices in all Child Welfare Agencies

Kristin Heffernan & Pamela Viggiani - The Advanced Generalist: Social Work Research Journal, 1 (3/4), p 37-58

This article reviews current efforts to train child welfare workers in the US in trauma informed practices and argues that trauma informed care adaptation and training must transcend case workers and supervisors in order for true systemic change to occur.

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Effects of institutional rearing and foster care on psychopathology at age 12 years in Romania: follow-up of an open, randomised controlled trial

Kathryn L Humphreys, Mary Margaret Gleason, Stacy S Drury, Devi Miron, Charles A Nelson 3rd, Nathan A Fox, Charles H Zeanah - The Lancet

This study examined psychopathology at age 12 years in a cohort of Romanian children who had been abandoned at birth and placed into institutional care, then assigned either to be placed in foster care or to care as usual.

Attachment-Informed Practice with Looked After Children and Young People

Judy Furnivall, SIRCC, on behalf of Scottish Attachment in Action - Institute for Research and Innovation on Social Services

This document stresses the importance of healthy attachments for children, especially looked after children. It provides an overview of attachment theory, presents the policy context of looked after children in Scotland, outlines the evidence on effective interventions for children in care and their families, and highlights findings and practice implications.

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Meeting Report of the Regional Learning and Consultation Meeting: Strengthening Child Care Systems

Better Care Network

Following a consultative mapping, a regional learning meeting took place on 19-20 August 2014 in Nairobi, Kenya. The theme of this meeting was "Reflection on past, current and future efforts aimed at strengthening child care systems in East and Southern Africa." 

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At the Crossroads for Unaccompanied Migrant Children: Policy, Practice & Protection

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS)

This report presents policy and practice recommendations for the care and protection of unaccompanied migrant children in the United States, based on the wisdom and learning shared by participants in three Roundtable meetings convened by Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS).

 

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Outils d'enquête sur le bien-être de l'enfant, de la personne qui s'occupe de l'enfant et du ménage pour les programmes destinés aux orphelins et enfants vulnérables. Un manuel

Chapman J, Foreit K, Hickmann M, Parker

Ces outils de collecte de données sont des questionnaires destinés à une enquête auprès de ménages avec des enfants âgés 0 à 17 ans et les adultes du ménage qui s'occupent des enfants.

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CPC Webinar: Making the Invisible Visible: Counting Children on the Streets in Malawi

CPC Learning Network

On July 28, 2015, the CPC Learning Network hosted a webinar featuring Joanna Wakia, Monitoring and Research Advisor at Retrak, Charles Gwengwe, Executive Director at Chisomo Children’s Club, and Mr. McKnight Kalanda, Director of Child Affairs in the Malawi Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability, and Social Welfare.

 

Mobilizing Your Community

REDMAS, Promundo, EME

This final section of Program P: A Manual for Engaging Men in Fatherhood, Caregiving, and Maternal and Child Health is designed for health sector workers and activists who are interested in developing and implementing social-awareness-raising activities in their community that promote the benefits of active fatherhood as a way to achieve gender equality, benefit children, and improve the lives of men and women.

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ABC Head First - Orphanage Tourism

Keke Marc Robertson - ABC

This animated video, made for an Australian audience, illustrates the orphanage industry in Cambodia, particularly how Australian “voluntourists” unwittingly contribute to the exploitation and traumatization of children in orphanages.

The Alternative Care Panel (Video)

Child’s i Foundation

This video describes the work of the Alternative Care Panel in Uganda, a panel composed of professionals who assess the stability of potential adoptive or foster parents to determine if the parents can provide for needy and vulnerable children, with the ultimate goal of keeping children out of institutional settings and in family-based care.

 

In Brief: The Science of Neglect

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University

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.

Common European Guidelines on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care

European Expert Group on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care

The Common European Guidelines on the Transition from Institutional to Community-based Care (‘the Guidelines’) provide practical advice about how to make a sustained transition from institutional care to family-based and community-based alternatives for individuals (including children) currently living in institutions and those living in the community, often without adequate support. 

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A Social Worker’s Tool Kit for Working With Immigrant Families: Healing the Damage: Trauma and Immigrant Families in the Child Welfare System

The Center on Immigration and Child Welfare

This toolkit, originally published in September 2010 and updated in February 2015, serves as a resource for social workers in the US who are working with immigrant families within the child welfare system.

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Early Childhood and family life: Guide of good practices for the right of young children to live in a family and a community - Spanish

RELAF and UNICEF

This Guide, written in Spanish, features a compilation of several social protection programs, services and public policies that resulted in the prevention of family breakdown and in the support of families and communities in caring and protecting their children.  All these examples are taken from the Latin American region, Italy and Romania.

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The Children Amendment Bill No. 2 - Uganda

The Republic of Uganda

In 2015, the Parliament of the Republic of Uganda considered the Children Amendment Bill, which has several implications for children’s care in the country. The object of the bill is to amend the Children Act Cap. 59, enhance protection of a child, provide for the guardianship of children, provide for inter country adoption, prohibit corporal punishment, and provide for related matters.

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Impact of a Mentoring Program on Psychosocial Wellbeing of Youth in Rwanda: Results of a Quasi-Experimental Study

Lisanne Brown, Tonya R. Thurman, Janet Rice, Neil W. Boris, Joseph Ntaganira, Laetitia Nyirazinyoye, Jean De Dieu & Leslie Snider

This quasi-experimental study tested a model of adult mentorship and support to improve psychosocial outcomes among youth-headed households in a rural area of Rwanda.

Parent and Child Reporting of Corporal Punishment: New Evidence from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study

William Schneider & Michael MacKenzie & Jane Waldfogel & Jeanne Brooks-Gunn

This paper provides new evidence on parent and child reporting of corporal punishment, drawing on data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a birth cohort study of families in 20 medium to large US cities.

Prevention of Violence, Abuse and Neglect in Early Childhood: A Review of the Literature on Research, Policy and Practice

Roy Evans, Philip Garner and Alice S. Honig

This literature review highlights the practices, policies and research on violence and abuse prevention in early childhood. it is guided by a socio-ecological model of contexts, participants and interactional complexity.