This is a 3-page document targeting donors, policy makers, and UN agencies regarding the roles of volunteers and how decision makers can support their roles

The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action undertook an inter-agency project to provide a better understanding of community volunteers’ engagement in the case management process and develop guidance and tools to support their work.

Community volunteers are an integral part of preventing and responding to cases of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of children in humanitarian settings. They have a deep understanding of their communities, and help to identify children who are at-risk, have experienced harm, or have been separated from their family. Following global and field research conducted in 2020, the Alliance has produced key resources related to the roles of community volunteers in Child Protection case management in humanitarian settings.

Sri Lanka's National Policy on the Alternative Care of Children outlines a comprehensive range of alternative care options and encourages the reforming of all formal structures that provide at-home and out­-of-home services for children deprived of care and protection or at risk of being so. This policy also extends to children under care of the Juvenile Justice System. It provides policy solutions to programming for children at risk of family separation and facing deprivations such as child abuse, neglect, child labor, poverty, addiction, imprisonment, human trafficking, mental and physical disabilities, HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, orphanhood, abandonment and displacement etc. The policy also takes into consideration and encompasses provisions to children who are forced to live and work on streets.

It is starting to be recognised that young people with mental health and/or intellectual disabilities making the transition to adulthood from out-of-home care require focused attention to understand their needs and service requirements. Within the UK jurisdiction of Northern Ireland (NI), young people with mental health and/or intellectual disabilities are over-represented in the population of care leavers and yet very little is known about their specific needs. The overall aim of the study reported here was to examine the profile of care leavers with mental health and/or intellectual disabilities in order to better inform how best to configure child and adult service systems to meet their transitional needs.

There are limited studies which investigate the perceived needs and wellbeing of parents caring for their children with disability from culturally and linguistically diverse communities. This qualitative study uniquely explored the experiences and cultural factors of Vietnamese parents caring for children with a disability in multicultural Australia.

At least 5 million children have lost a parent or caregiver due to #COVID19 since March 2020, updated figures suggest. The authors urge actions to prioritise affected children, incl. economic strengthening, enhanced community and family support, and education.

The goal of the summit was to lead lasting change in the lives of millions of people with disabilities. To succeed, it is crucial that governments, international organizations, civil society and private business commit themselves to increased efforts to promote inclusion and rights-based development.

The UNICEF-Changing the Way We Care Regional Learning Platform for Eastern and Southern Africa held its first webinar of the year on Child Protection System Strengthening and Care Reform.

This video summary accompanies the Readjusting to Parenthood: Peer Support Groups for Grandparents Assuming Care for Orphaned Children (Upendo Village, Kenya) practitioner learning video which is part of the Kenya Practitioner Learning Video Series.

This virtual study tour aims to provide you with an overview of care reform in Zambia from the comfort of your own home. Care reform relates to the care of children.

यस अध्ययनले सातवटा केन्द्रित देशहरूमा २१ अर्ध-संरचित अन्तर्वार्ताहरू समावेश गरी गुणस्तरीय अनुसन्धान अध्ययन सञ्चालन गरेर निजी रूपमा सञ्चालित र वित्त पोषित आवासीय हेरचाह संस्थाहरूको सानो संख्यामा COVID-19 को प्रभावको अन्वेषण गर्दछ।

This Changing the Way We Care virtual study tour aims to provide an overview of care reform in Kenya 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.

Esta evaluación curricular esta dirigida a profesionales, personal y estudiantes de programas de trabajo social; la cual se basó en el análisis de cinco planes de estudio universitarios guatemaltecos relacionados con el trabajo social, utilizando un marco de competencias que incluyó habilidades y conocimientos básicos sobre los derechos de la niñez y adolescencia, la protección y el bienestar. Los resultados destacaron que los planes de estudio eran valiosos en muchos sentidos, sin embargo, presentan oportunidades para fortalecer los contenidos a fin de preparar con mayor profundidad al recurso humano convirtiendose en defensores de los derechos y la protección de los niños, niñas o adolescentes

This articles reflects the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the everyday lives of children and their families in Estonia during lockdown in spring 2020 and 2021. The data corpus is based on diaries compiled by children during the first lockdown in 2020 for a collection at the Estonian Literary Museum, and on a series of semi-structured interviews with children documenting their experiences during lockdown in spring 2021. The study draws on literature from the “new sociology of childhood” and applies Bronfenbrenner’s social ecological model to an analysis of young people’s experiences when their mobility outside the home was restricted, and they were forced to reorganise their time use.

The purpose of the study is to understand the impact of COVID-19 on alternative care space in South Asian countries, its effect on the children living in alternative care, and to understand the measures taken by respective governments in these countries to support them during the pandemic.

Since the 1980s, an increasing number of researchers have focused on the educational attainment of looked-after children. Children in residential homes are in high risk of educational failure, and such failure may cause social problems later in life. Several scholars have called for efforts to promote lookedafter children’s ability to cope with academic challenges.

This exploratory narrative case study delves into the life trajectories of two English-speaking adults age 50+ who spent over three years in youth protection-based congregate care and aged out of these services in Quebec, Canada.

With millions of children worldwide living in alternative care settings, this article applies the learning from implementation science to advance the sector’s thinking around what needs to be in place to ensure consistently high-quality residential care.

Transitioning into adulthood can be difficult for many young people but transitioning from residential care comes with challenges to those who have grown up away from parents and family. This paper presents the voices of young women in Trinidad and Tobago and the challenges they faced transitioning from residential care. Their voices highlight the need to think in more gendered terms when contemplating effective strategies for facilitating transitions from out of home care.

Stability in residential care has, to date, been operationalised by fundamentally counting placements and equating these with varying levels of stability. In so doing, it has been found that having many placements (i.e., indicative of instability) is associated with diverse problematic outcomes including increased criminalisation, increased mental health difficulties and ongoing placement instability. On the other hand, however, stability has not been found to provide repair. This paper examines staff’s roles and needs required for providing stability.

Putting this second national report on corporate parenting before the Scottish Parliament in line with their duties under Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, the Scottish Government provides an overview of corporate parents’ activities over the last three years. The report aims to become a useful learning resource for corporate parents.

The views and experiences of foster carers and services have been published in a new State of the Nation's Foster Care 2021 report from The Fostering Network. The findings are based on a survey of foster carers and fostering services across the UK.

This study consists of an analysis of government digital policies focused on children in Uruguay between 2009 and 2019. To facilitate this, the CRC was used as a framework to categorise key features of the principal strategies that have been implemented. It argues that while great advances have been made in terms of digital access, this has not been sufficiently accompanied with comprehensive and child-centred solutions that encompass regulations and children and adult digital education.

This paper explores perspectives on family reunification and emergent forms of separation among young migrants. These young people lived apart from and later reunited with their migrant parents who moved from the Philippines to Canada for work.

The purpose of the risk assessment is primarily to enable your organization to gather a snapshot of safeguarding needs and measures related to the activities being or to be undertaken by your organization.

This resource aims to improve the quality of care for children of female sex workers (CFSWs).  It is a training guide that aims to strengthen the capacity of community workers and volunteers to provide services that meet the special needs of CFSWs and ensure these services are key population-competent, child-friendly and stigma-free. 

This Guidance is a resource for people who work with children and families using a case management approach in middle-income and low-income countries. It contains information about how to work with children with disabilities and their families.

សាយយ័ន្តសួស្តីបងៗ​ និងប្អូនៗទាំងឡាយដែលធ្លាប់មានបទពិសោធន៍ជីវិតរស់នៅ​ ឬអ្នកកំពុងរស់នៅ​ រួមទាំងអ្នកត្រៀមចាកចេញពីមណ្ឌលកុមារកំព្រាជាទីស្រឡាញ់រាប់អាន​ ❤️️
ពួកយេីងសូមស្វាគមន៍អ្នកទាំងអស់គ្នា មកកាន់កម្មវិធីប្រពន្ធ័សារសំឡេងរបស់ @ក្មេងអង្គការកម្ពុជា Podcast។
(This is the first episode in a podcast series created by the Kmeng Onka Cambodia Care Leavers Network highlighting the lived experience of those living in residential care or are about to leave.)

This report is the culmination of almost four years of research. It gives an overview of the child protection situation in all 195 autonomous countries in the world.

Building on Volume 1 of the Residential Child and Youth Care in a Developing World Series that used the FIFA Football Confederation Regions to step outside contemporary discourses about residential child and youth care, further contributions from 23 UEFA countries are offered in this second volume which follows.

The causes of institutionalization are multiple and the impact it causes is reflected in different areas such as the development of the child in general, such as mental, psychic structuring, health, and nutrition. Psychologically, children present alterations in their cognitive, emotional, sexual, and social domains with a high probability of developing several pathological conditions. This chapter presents an overview of this phenomenon based on several research investigations carried out in Spain, Latin America, and Mexico.

The objective of the study was to evaluate the health and nutritional status of four registered orphanages of Rawalpindi, to find frequency of nutritional deficiencies by physical examination findings and to assess their dietary intake and contrast it with individual recommended daily allowances.

This report highlights the changing characteristics of children in and on the ‘edge of care’, including unaccompanied minors, increasing numbers of young people with unmet complex needs and BAME young people.

This is a comprehensive collection offering accounts of “first hand” lived experiences of young people growing up in some form of residential child and youth care in 19 African countries.

Children make up 50% of those affected in humanitarian crises and are disproportionately impacted by conflict and crisis.

The Unprotected Series maintains an important spotlight on the resources needed and those available for child protection actors to provide essential and life-saving services across the humanitarian system.

Increased and long-term parental stress related to one's parental role can lead to parental burnout. In the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, families experienced intensified pressure due to the government-initiated contact restrictions applied to prevent the spread of the virus in the population. This study investigates the risk factors and predictors of parental burnout in a large sample of parents during the COVID-19 pandemic in Norway.

his study examined the relationships between COVID-related stress, mental health and professional burnout in the infant and early child mental health (IECMH) workforce and examined reflective supervision and consultation (RSC) as a potential protective factor in the context of COVID-related stress.

This protocol for data collection on children living in residential care facilities (RCFs) aims to provide governments with clear guidance on recommended actions and steps for undertaking a census to map and enumerate such facilities and the children living in them.

Useful Resources and Tools | Case Studies | Tool Overview

This report was conceptualised jointly by Eurochild and the UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO) and builds on the Eurochild report on alternative care in Europe published in 2009. It also includes a full set of country profiles.

This policy brief summarises the policy context, as well as the key findings and recommendations from the analysis of the national responses to the DataCare survey across Europe. More detailed information can be found in the full research report: Better Data for Better Child Protection Systems in Europe: Mapping how data on children in alternative care are collected, analysed, and published across 28 European countries, which includes a full set of country profiles.