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Without access to the relationships and information relevant to forming a cohesive identity, children systematically face a range of challenges – legal, psychosocial and medical - throughout their life. Losing the connections and family relations that are essential for maintaining lifelong relationships to parents, siblings, friends, as well as community and wider social networks can have significant implications for the child’s psychosocial and emotional well-being as well as result in loss of protective networks and sense of belonging that are critical as they become adults. The lack of…
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.
Background:
Child protection actors in humanitarian and development settings have long recognized the role of communities in assisting children affected by violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation, and family separation. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the reliance on community volunteers in particular, as NGO access was severely limited with lockdowns and movement restrictions implemented across the globe. With a deeper…
Overview
This brief summarizes actions that programme planners and implementers should take to minimize the impact that emergencies have on the lives of young children and their families. It calls upon all relevant stakeholders to invest in evidence-based policies and interventions that have been shown to build resilience and mitigate the harmful effects of emergencies.
This issue brief from the UNHCR highlights key messages from UNHCR in regards to family tracing and reunification. The brief outlines the importance of children growing up in a safe family environment and the positive impact this has on a child's psychological, cognitive and physical development. In the best case, alternative care is only required as an interim measure while family tracing is carried out and until the time when children can be reunited with parents or family members.This brief is part of a series developed by UNHCR which aims to guide field operations on key thematic child…
Summary
Following the provisions of the 2016 Immigration Act to permit the transfer of unaccompanied children the Scottish Government, COSLA, and local authorities have entered into negotiations with the Home Office to facilitate the arrival of children and young people to Scotland. The present research sought to explore the capacity, experience and understanding of local authorities to provide a support system that can best ensure the wellbeing of children, as it has been suggested that outside of the large urban authorities there is limited experience of working with separated children…
This joint publication from Child Trends and the National Research Center on Hispanic Children and Families calls attention to the critical need to support immigrant families in the US who have been negatively affected by the trauma of separation, and who will likely continue to experience considerable adversity in the future, even if reunited with their loved ones. The publication offers research-based guidance for parents, service providers, communities, and policymakers and advocates for the use of trauma-informed care (TIC) to promote…
When a major disaster strikes in the United States, the President issues a Presidential Disaster Declaration releasing federal disaster relief funds for the “critical services” necessary to restore local communities. One community service not considered eligible for federal relief funds is childcare. But childcare is a necessary condition for getting communities back to normal routines and parents back to work. Redefining childcare as a critical service is not only good for the educational development of young children but makes it possible for the parents of young children to resume their…
Published jointly with UNICEF, this new BCN Working Paper focuses on the role of gatekeeping in strengthening family-based care and reforming alternative care systems. Gatekeeping refers to systematic procedures aimed at ensuring that alternative care for children is used only when necessary, and that the type of care provided is suitable to the individual child. This Working Paper reviews different approaches to gatekeeping in five countries--Brazil, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Moldova, and Rwanda--to consider what has and has not worked, to analyze lessons learned from practice, and to…
This report is published in light of the recent “large-scale flight of unaccompanied children from Central America” to the United States, which reached its peak in the summer of 2014. The report evolved out of, and is informed by, a series of three “Roundtable” meetings convened by Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) in 2014 to consider current and ideal practice with unaccompanied children in the US.
The report presents policy and practice recommendations for the care and protection of unaccompanied children, based on the wisdom and learning shared by the participants in these…
This policy brief by Save the Children introduces the background, goals, and guiding principles of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children while also explaining why family-based care is a preferred care arrangement over institutions. Furthermore, it suggests policy and practice recommendations to further protect children without appropriate care and strengthen families and communities. Save the Children has been involved at the international level in the development of the Guidelines and at the country level in efforts to ensure use of the Guidelines as a framework for reform.…