The webinar, hosted by Transform Alliance Africa, provides an overview of the progress and findings from our youth wellbeing project. The youth wellbeing project is a community mental health initiative led by care experienced youth that aims to develop a safe transition pathway for young people leaving orphanages and provide support to young people experiencing well being and mental health challenges in the community.
The purpose of this outcome document is to provide summaries of plenary sessions and the five working groups that took place during the DGD, and to present a comprehensive set of recommendations on the key themes covered during the preparatory processes leading up to the DGD, including through hundreds of written submissions, a global survey of children and young people with care experience, and during the DGD itself.
This sixteenth issue of the South African Child Gauge focuses attention on child and adolescent mental health and how early experiences of adversity ripple out across the life course and generations at great cost to individuals and society. It calls on South African society to put children at the centre of all policies in order to protect children from harm, build their capacity to cope with stress and adversity, and provide them with opportunities to thrive.
Eurochild has carried out an urgent mapping, with support from its members, UNICEF country teams and government representatives across 13 countries. The mapping examines the laws and policies at national level for children in alternative care and unaccompanied and separated children from Ukraine who arrive in the following countries: Czechia, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and the United Kingdom.
This discussion paper addresses issues facing unaccompanied and separated children fleeing Ukraine and arriving in the European Union (EU). In particular, it focuses on the priority issue of how care and custodial arrangements and guardianship under child protection and migration measures are established within EU Member States. This question has implications for how children access protection, how information on their circumstances is managed and ultimately how durable solutions are identified and secured for children.
Această formare rapidă a fost concepută pentru a oferi informații familiilor de plasament (foster care) din Moldova în vederea pregătirii pentru plasamentul copiilor neînsoțiți și separați din Ucraina. Pachetul de formare include un PPT și un ghid al facilitatorului. Conținutul oferit în timpul programului de formare de șase ore include informații de bază despre traumele din copilărie, experiențele adverse din copilărie, elementele-cheie ale PFA, inclusiv "Privește, Ascultă și Leagă”, precum și înțelegerea modului în care se pot identifica și sprijini atât copiii care au trecut prin traume, cât și modul în care acestea se pot manifesta la diferite vârste și etape de dezvoltare.
The Care Leavers, COVID-19 and Transition from Care (CCTC) study explored how COVID-19 impacted on care leavers’ lives and their pathways out of care; examining where young people went, what services and support they received, and how young people got on.
Childrearing in sub-Saharan Africa is often viewed as collaborative, where children benefit from support from kin. For single mothers living in informal settlements, kin networks may be highly dispersed and offer little day-to-day childrearing support, but may provide opportunities for child fostering. This study conducted in Nairobi, Kenya, uses a linked lives approach, where single mothers’ connections with kin and romantic partners may influence whether – and what type of – kin are relied on to support child fostering.
The purpose of this study was to examine, in a sample of residential care children, the moderating role of cognitive flexibility in the association between maltreatment and emotion regulation competencies. The sample included 69 children aged 8 to 12 and their group home educator as their primary caretaker. Educators completed questionnaires evaluating child emotion regulation competencies and cognitive flexibility.
This study provides an overview of the family reunification process of Latinx adolescents who have migrated to join their families in the United States.
This article presents Kaupapa Māori research undertaken by a mokopuna Māori with the lived experience of state care in New Zealand, alongside established Kaupapa Māori researchers. Literature containing the voices of care-experienced mokopuna Māori was reviewed to explore what conditions exist and are needed to uphold wellbeing.
Previous studies have shown that mental health disorders (MHD) among parents might be an important mechanism in the intergenerational transmission of out-of-home care (OHC). The current study aimed to further study this interplay by investigating the associations between OHC and MHD within and across generations in a Swedish cohort.
This report aims to provide a rapid assessment of the risks of trafficking and exploitation created by the war in Ukraine and the gaps in the current anti-trafficking response, in order to identify what needs to be done now to reduce and prevent trafficking before it is too late. This rapid assessment is based on desktop research; interviews/discussions with organisations, experts and participants in the anti-trafficking response including volunteers, translators, refugees, and displaced people; and a field visit to Poland.
This article discussed the proceedings for placement of children in foster care by foreign authorities introduced into Polish law. The available official data indicate that the British and German authorities are the most inclined to place children with Polish citizenship in foster care in their homeland.
Black and Latinx youth are more likely to be placed into foster care compared to non-Latinx white youth. Foster care placement can facilitate mental health service use, yet youth from marginalized and oppressed racial and ethnic groups in foster care are still less likely to receive mental health services compared to non-Latinx white youth. This study aims to examine this discrepancy Black and Latinx youth face by testing (a) whether mental health need moderates the relationship between race or ethnicity and foster care placement and (b) whether race or ethnicity moderates the relationship between foster care placement and mental health service use.
Separation and loss characterise a child’s experience in care, yet losses in the care-experienced population have rarely been studied as a possible source of trauma or as events that may justify a grief response. A literature search of five databases yielded 592 publications. 41 full text articles were reviewed, 16 publications were included. Thematic analysis revealed: children in care are affected by two broad type of ambiguous loss, relationship losses and psychosocial losses; behaviours labelled as ‘problem’ behaviours may in fact be indicators of the manifestations of ambiguous loss and disenfranchised grief; manifold ambiguous losses associated with multiple placement moves has a cumulative effect that can generate long-term negative consequences; the effects of ambiguous loss can be offset by supporting children in care to understand that their losses may not be resolvable, to build tolerance to this ambiguity, to rebuild their identity through forging permanent connections, and to make meaning of their situations.
This study focused on Israeli care leavers a decade after leaving care and explored various factors associated with satisfaction with both intimate relationships and parenthood.
Individual studies suggest most children and youth in residential care centres (RCCs) have living parents, and parental death is not the primary antecedent to placement in residential care. The goal of the present review was to examine the literature to better understand the primary antecedents to placement in RCCs overall. One hundred thirty-two studies, including 60,683 children in 47 nations meet eligibility criteria for inclusion for the overarching review of antecedents of placement.
This study found a strong relationship between the care environment and resilience in orphaned and separated adolescents and youths (OSAY) in western Kenya. Care environment and resilience each independently demonstrated strong relationships with peer support, social support, and participating in volunteer activities. Resilience also had a strong relationship with familial support. These data suggest that resilience can be developed through strategic supports to this vulnerable population.
South Korea experienced international scrutiny over its irregular intercountry adoption practices in the 1980s. However, it eventually came to be viewed as a model of transparent and efficient adoptions. This façade disguises an orphan adoption system that has become entrenched over the decades. Today, adoptees continue to lobby for their right to origins. This paper explores South Korea’s laws and policies, which nullified the rights of adoptees, and it calls for receiving countries to assume co-responsibility to restore these rights.
This report provides analysis of all up-to-date LA sufficiency strategies with a focus on identifying (I) the main perceived challenges for local authorities (LAs) to meet their sufficiency duty, (II) what actions are being undertaken or planned by LAs to improve commissioning outcomes, and (III) perceived negative consequences associated with using certain commissioning or market shaping approaches. This work was commissioned by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.
The migration of parents is believed to be for the sake of children and families left behind. However, its impact on children left behind has been overlooked in Southern Wollo, Ethioipia. The impact of parental migration on the education and behavioral outcomes of children left behind has to be investigated in the migration-prone area. The objective of this study was to examine the impact of the migration of parent(s) on the education and behavioral outcomes of children left behind.
This is a recording of the first session in a webinar series celebrating the launch of of a themed issue of Global Childhood Studies journal (Volume.2; Issue.1). This first webinar focuses on Responding to varied experiences of childhood separation.
Through 2020 and 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic led to prolonged school closures in Uganda. These closures exacerbated sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) against girls.
This guidance has been compiled for service providers who are working with children, families, and separated children in response to the current humanitarian situation in Ukraine and surrounding countries.
The Toolkit for Community Child Protection Volunteers and supplementary training manual aim to promote evidence-informed best practices when engaging community volunteers in child protection responses. This toolkit is based on the Community Engagement in Case Management study, which was commissioned by the Alliance and completed in 2020.
Putting Children and Young People at the Heart of Care Reform is an introductory manual aimed at practitioners. The manual provides a comprehensive overview of how to meaningfully engage children and young people in care reform. It covers the legal and theoretic framework, the basics in how to engage with children and young people, how to be inclusive and practical ways to engage children and young people in monitoring and evaluation. It also has an extensive chapter on how children and young people can and should be involved throughout care reform, from making decisions about their own care, right up to engaging in global policy decisions. It will challenge readers to increase participation in their own work and equip them with tools to do so in a safe and meaningful way.
This Handbook explains the processes of the Foster Care Programme based on the “Manual on Foster Care for UASC”, which sets the minimum standards for providing foster care for children without parents or an adult to care for them in Malaysia.
This is a child-friendly summary of a handbook developed specifically to create a Foster Care Programme for unaccompanied and separated children (UASC) within the Rohingya community in Malaysia.
This is a child-friendly summary of a handbook developed specifically to create a Foster Care Programme for unaccompanied and separated children (UASC) within the Rohingya community in Malaysia.
Це керівництво складено таким чином, щоб забезпечити базове розуміння того, як надавати першу психологічну допомогу в умовах надзвичайного стану. Воно засноване на Керівництві Всесвітньої організації охорони здоров'я з надання першої психологічної допомоги для працівників, які працюють на місці (2011), та було адаптоване спеціально для надання допомоги біженцям з України в умовах Молдови.
This handbook was developed specifically to create a Foster Care Programme for unaccompanied and separated children (UASC) within the Rohingya community in Malaysia. Article 20 (Children deprived of family environment) and Article 22 (Refugee children) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) require that special care arrangements and protection are provided for UASC while preserving their ethnicity, religion, culture and language. In the case of Rohingya UASC, this calls for a special Foster Care Programme where these children are placed under the care of families from the Rohingya refugee community.
A documentary from UNICEF Ghana on the work of BRAVEAURORA in order to raise awareness about the harm of residential care.
The Community Placement and Case Management (CPCM) Programme aims to provide a holistic case management system that specifically looks into the protection concerns of migrant, undocumented, stateless, refugee, and asylum seeking Unaccompanied and Separated Children (UASC) at risk of arrest and detention and those directly affected by immigration detention in Malaysia.
The Task Force on Foster Care of the Transforming Children's Care Global Collaborative Platform held the third webinar in the spotlight series on Foster Care Practice on 2 June 2022.
This research aims to identify and better understand what it is that enables and challenges the necessary improvements needed at national and local level to support children and young people to successfully transition to adulthood.
Not About Me is a feature documentary about good intentions and unintended consequences. When Morgan Wienberg, a well-meaning Canadian teenager, volunteers at a Haitian orphanage in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, her plans take a turn. She is part of an army of NGOs and volunteers with billions in promised aid, all rushing to respond to the disaster. But once on the ground, she begins to see their earnest actions have their own devastating impacts.
Through a new partnership between VOICE and HIAS, and as part of a six-country assessment in the region, VOICE conducted a three-week remote rapid assessment in Ukraine to assess the needs of women and girls affected by the war, and the needs of WROs and groups responding to the emergency. The assessment revealed that the top concerns for women and girls include threats to physical safety from active conflict and continual bombardment; food insecurity; and lack of access to healthcare, including the full range of reproductive health services, care for survivors of rape, and mental health.
This is the first report from The Promise Oversight Board on progress that Scotland is making to keep the promise. It was a promise made to care experienced infants, children, young people, adults and their families. It was also made to families who live around the ‘care system’ and whose lives are impacted by its decisions. The promise made reflects a commitment that had already been made through the National Performance Framework - that every child grows up loved, safe and respected and able to realise their full potential.
In the last decade, a lot of research has been undertaken on the issue of domestic or intimate partner violence in India but limited research has been undertaken on the issue from a child’s perspective, that is, intra-parental violence. The children – silent witnesses of intra-parental violence (IPV) are neglected not only by the parents but also by researchers and the state. Thus, there remain very few opportunities to bring the children to the notice of the society. Often the society and the legal systems designed to help victims of domestic violence fail to address the needs of the children due to lack of sensitivity towards their vulnerability. Ample laws do exist in India that deal with the issue of domestic violence, still there is a long way to go to understand the plight of children being exposed to IPV as silent witnesses and give it recognition as a social problem that requires legal intervention.
The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the impact of the war against Ukraine on women on 5 May 2022.
Communication from the Commission on Operational guidelines for the implementation of Council implementing Decision 2022/382 establishing the existence of a mass influx of displaced persons from Ukraine within the meaning of Article 5 of Directive 2001/55/EC, and having the effect of introducing temporary protection 2022/C 126 I/01.
During emergencies, such as conflict, it is a well-accepted principle of States’ obligations under international law that adoption is not an appropriate response for unaccompanied and separated children. This is a joint call for a moratorium on intercountry adoption in response to the conflict in Ukraine. In line with the Ukrainian Government’s suspension of intercountry adoption, the joint statement urges receiving States, international bodies, and humanitarian agencies to adopt a harmonised approach and call for a moratorium on intercountry adoptions from Ukraine.
The WHO European Framework for Action on Mental Health (EFAMH), covering the period 2021–2025, sets out a response to current mental health challenges arising from the negative impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on population mental health and well-being. The EFAMH provides a coherent basis for intensified efforts to mainstream, promote and safeguard mental well-being as an integral element of COVID-19 response and recovery; to counter the stigma and discrimination associated with mental health conditions; and to advocate for and promote investment in accessible quality mental health services. Implementation and monitoring of this Framework for Action will be powered by the Pan-European Mental Health Coalition, a flagship initiative of the European Programme of Work 2020–2025. Draft of this document was tabled as a background document for the discussion on mental health during the 71st session of the Regional Committee for Europe, Virtual session, 13–15 September 2021.
Collaborating across humanitarian sectors is crucial to protecting children, promoting their well-being, and making the most of available funding. The CPMS Working Group’s “Working Across Sectors” initiative is gathering technical resources to help practitioners from all sectors achieve just that. The new Working Across Sectors Toolkit for Building Awareness and Support in English, Arabic, French and Spanish contains a wealth of ready-to-use materials for communicating the benefits of cross-sectoral collaboration.
This report provides a review of international and national models of engagement, support and advocacy for parents who have contact with child protection systems. How statutory child protection systems engage with parents ultimately affects the outcomes for children, including safety, permanency and wellbeing. While social work practices that emphasise people’s self-determination and strengths are recognised as fundamental to eliciting change in parents when care standards have faltered, there is widespread acknowledgment of the struggle child protection authorities have to meaningfully engage parents and families.
This video explains the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the European Union. The Committee is checking if the EU made progress in the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities since 2015. The European Network on on Independent Living (ENIL) submitted a shadow report to the Committee. This video explains what you can find in ENIL's shadow report.
This video explains the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the European Union. The Committee is checking if the EU made progress in the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities since 2015. The European Network on on Independent Living (ENIL) submitted a shadow report to the Committee. This video explains what you can find in ENIL's shadow report.
This session on the central role of social protection in tackling child labour took place as part of the 5th Global Conference on Child Labour in Durban, South Africa, on May 18, 2022.
