Resources Database

This article provides a children’s rights-based approach for social workers who are directly involved in social work with migrant children. Even though the scope of analysis was directed to the experience of Venezuelan migrant children, this research can serve as an important source to guide social workers involved with child migrants in different social and geographical backgrounds.

A cross-sectional study was conducted to better understand the factors and motivations that enabled the transition and retention of health workers, and these findings can be applied to social service workers and other allied workforces.

Through two projects designed by SOS Children's Villages, findings show that care leavers experience a range of emotions when leaving their place of care: a mix of happiness and expectations of freedom and independence along with feelings of loneliness, anxiety and, sometimes, fear. Care leavers have concerns about their protection, inadequate levels of support, the unsatisfactory manner in which support is offered, lack of access to services, and insufficient participation in decision-making.

This report is a compilation of assessments on best practices in family strengthening in middle-income countries in order to provide policy-makers, service providing organizations and child protection and child rights practitioners with a tool for program implementation.

One of UNHCR’s key priorities is to protect and promote the rights of all children falling under its mandate. In order to achieve this, UNHCR and its partners must support the strengthening or establishment of comprehensive child protection systems. A best interests determination (BID) describes the formal process, with strict safeguards, that UNHCR has established for decision-making.

UNHCR has updated its Guidelines on Assessing and Determining the Best Interests of the Child (Best Interests Procedure (BIP) Guidelines). The BIP Guidelines combine a conceptual framework of the best interests of the child with field-driven, operational guidance to provide one consolidated, practical frame of reference for staff and partners in the field. They are based on extensive consultation with UNHCR and partners, and replace the 2008 Guidelines on Determining the Best Interests of the Child and the accompanying Field Handbook. 

High quality supervision is one of the most important drivers in ensuring positive outcomes for people who use social are and children’s services. It also has a crucial role to play in the development, retention and motivation of the workforce. We also know that managers want us to do more to develop their contribution to delivering the very best services.

This resource provides a list of common Community Based Child Protection (CBCP) related terms and their definitions and is intended to show the evolving definitions around CBCP.

Learn from case studies from six organizations serving orphans and vulnerable children that transitioned their programs to family-based care.

As the field of violence prevention and response continues to grow, the long-term, multi-sectoral coordination model piloted in Tanzania is often cited as a model for impact, capacity-building, ownership and momentum.

Humanitarian crises present major threats to the wellbeing of children. These threats include risks of violence, abduction and abuse, emotional distress and the disruption of development. Humanitarian response efforts frequently address these threats through psychosocial programming. Systematic reviews have demonstrated the weak evidence-base regarding the impact of such interventions. This analysis assesses the impact of Child Friendly Spaces (CFS), one such commonly implemented intervention after humanitarian emergencies.

Data from this review in eight countries is intended to guide and assist country-level action plans to strengthen the social service workforce.

Children and young people who, for various reasons, live without the care of their parents or those who are at risk of losing it are the most exposed to poverty, discrimination, and exclusion – factors that, in turn, can make them more vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, and abandonment. The difficult transition to autonomous and independent life which faces these young people is a topic about which there is little understanding globally.

This study was conducted with 106 professionals who work in the child protection system in Spain. The results show a high degree of consensus among professionals regarding the following practices: (a) incorporating positive parenting into family reunification processes; (b) training the biological parents in parenting skills; and (c) promoting the active participation of children in foster care and reunification.

Professionals working in criminal and family courts often say that they feel ill-prepared to communicate with children and young people. This tool provides practical suggestions and guidance for practitioners in communicating with children in court.

Interviews with children are supplemented with data regarding instability in the care system. Children describe how changing social workers increases unsettling and upsetting experiences when they move and change schools. Building long-lasting and stable relationships with social workers improves their experiences.

Manitoba has one of the highest rates of children taken into care of child welfare services in the world, and also one of the highest youth incarceration rates in Canada. Policy-makers recognize there is overlap between these systems. This article aims to investigate some of those reasons, and also what types of supports are needed for practitioners and parents to decrease this rate.

This study intends to inform the development and piloting of new approaches to integrating child protection concerns into multi-purpose cash monitoring frameworks.

There has been longstanding concern about the overrepresentation of care leavers in the criminal justice system and the fact that the behaviours of care experienced children are more likely to come to the attention of the police and to attract a criminalising response.