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Sleep health is a critical but under-recognized area of concern for the more than 650,000 children served by the US child welfare system each year. While sleep is vital to optimal child health and development, it is likely harmed by the multiple adversities and traumas experienced among children and youth residing in alternative care settings (ie, kinship care, nonrelative foster care, group homes). Children residing in alternative care settings have experienced, at a minimum, the trauma of removal from a biological parent's care and would benefit from holistic, comprehensive care approaches…
Kenya has embarked on a care reform process that is aimed at promoting family and community-based care options and subsequently reducing reliance on institutions (Children’s homes, Orphanages, baby centers, etc.) This booklet, along with the accompanying animations, emphasizes the importance of family based care for the care of orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) in Kenya, provides answers to regularly asked questions, and lists current government efforts to support OVC, including the policy and legal…
This Call to Action outlines some of the impacts of both displacement and COVID-19 that are threatening the positive development of many young children around the world. It calls for governments and donors honor existing commitments, ensure inclusion of young children and families in public systems and take FIVE immediate actions to increase investments in:
- Food supplements, health care access, cash assistance & other social protection measures
- Emergency early learning programs
- Remote and ongoing mental health and child protection…
Introduction
The spread of COVID-19 is an unprecedented global crisis. Families the world over are affected, including the millions of children who live not with their parents but with grandparents, aunts, uncles, older siblings or friends of the family. This ‘kinship care’ is widespread; in some countries, up to a third of children are raised this way. Whilst kinship care is valued by communities and children and recognised as a preferred form of care by policymakers, kinship carers receive minimal assistance, leaving the children in their care vulnerable to many threats to their…
This article from the World Economic Forum describes the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on children in immigration detention in the United States. It calls on the US government to take the following six immediate actions to stop the violence against migrant children and families and to protect them from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
1. The current administration must immediately release all migrants, including children and families, detained in US custody to safe and sanitary housing.
2. Children and family members who are released…
This report from Amnesty International outlines the "reckless response" of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the COVID-19 crisis, which threatens public health, and calls for the release of immigration detainees, including children as young as one year old.
The undersigned organizations of this Call to Action jointly call on the governments of European Union (EU) Member States to immediately commit to the emergency relocation of unaccompanied children from the Greek islands to other European countries, giving precedence to existing family links and the best interests of the child. Action is all the more urgent in light of the escalating violence on Lesbos and as increased arrivals to the islands could lead to further deterioration of the dangerous conditions in the camps.
Approximately one in ten children around the world live in kinship care. This form of care is both the most widely used and the most valued option for children who cannot be cared for by their parents. Yet it is also neglected by policymakers and practitioners, placing children at great risk.
Kinship caregivers are often expected to look after children with no or minimal support, and greater emphasis is placed by many governments on more formalised forms of care outside of children’s families. The failure to support kinship care exposes already highly vulnerable children to…
Abstract
In the decade leading up to 2012, approximately 8,000 Unaccompanied Minors (UAM) arrived annually at the Southwestern border of the United States. Since then, the number of arrivals has drastically increased, surpassing 14,000 between October 1, 2017 and January 31, 2018 alone. The needs of UAM concerning mental health, education, social, and legal counseling often differ from the needs of other Latinx and immigrant populations. However, recent instability in the protections and services tailored to UAM are channeling these youth and their families into mainstream agencies. This…
The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (The Alliance) is an interagency coalition of nearly 100 member organizations that work together to protect children facing adversity. The Better Care Network (BCN) is an international network of organizations committed to supporting children without adequate family care. To reduce the impact of family separation on children, we are calling for the prompt reunification…