Resources Database

This report is structured into seven chapters, which take us on a path towards greater understanding of the challenges inherent in protecting children in alternative care from violence. It combines a comprehensive review on violence against children in alternative care with an analysis of experiences and data from 21 countries, as reported in assessments based on the SOS Children’s Villages Assessment Tool for the Implementation of the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children.

This report has a simple and urgent goal: to connect decision-makers and relevant actors with strategies that prevent and respond to violence in the lives of children. The scope of this review includes interventions that address interpersonal violence (emotional, physical and sexual) against children at home, school, work, the community at large and social spaces created by mobile and online technology.

As part of the process of developing Outreach Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), it has become clear that despite variation in outreach activities and drop-in centers, there is a clear approach to outreach which is common across Retrak. This reflects the international approach to outreach in youth work and with other hard-to-reach population groups. This paper aims to clarify Retrak's approach to outreach and the principles underlying it, drawing on wider research and good practice. It is a precursor to the publication of Retrak's Outreach SOPs.

Foster care can be an important part of the continuum of care choices for children. When foster care is administered appropriately, with the proper mechanisms, structures and resources, it allows children to remain in a loving and caring family while authorities work towards family reintegration or permanent alternatives. 

The evidence presented in this report suggests that there is no one blueprint of universal elements for successful foster care programs. The workforce developing and delivering foster care programs must carefully examine their specific local context and adapt programs accordingly. 

As the world marks 25 years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, The State of the World’s Children calls for brave and fresh thinking to address age-old problems that still affect the most disadvantaged children.

This policy brief summarizes research that studied whether increased availability of social support is associated with lower odds of depression and anxiety among caregivers of children in poor, HIV-endemic communities. It also looked at the pathways and mechanisms through which caregivers perceive social support to be influencing their health.

Primary caregivers of children in poor HIV-endemic communities represent a high risk population for mental health conditions, given the challenges associated with caring for biological and foster children in difficult social and financial conditions. This may be especially true if caregivers are living with HIV or other chronic illness. No large studies have previously explored the relationship between social support and health with caregiver populations in HIV-endemic areas of southern Africa.

This report highlights the situation of children and women living in the most challenging circumstances, outlines the human and financial resources required to help them survive and thrive, and shows the results UNICEF and its partners have achieved and are working towards. Information about UNICEF’s work in these contexts is presented on the country and regional pages.

Social work practices in England were evaluated from 2009-2012 to determine how the office environment may affect children’s perceptions of receiving care at out-of-home sites.

Abstract: This article depicts a journey over the decades to address some of the needs of children and families in the child welfare system. Recounting a few key milestones and challenges in the past 40 years, it is argued that workforce development is one key to improved outcomes for abused and neglected children and their families. Major events and several turning points are chronicled. Emerging workforce needs in aging are also cited as lessons learned from child welfare have implications for building a gero savvy social work workforce.

Abstract: Beginning in 1988, the social work profession undertook a twenty-five year endeavor to enhance its research capacity and to assure greater representation of social work research needs, priorities and findings at the federal level, where major policy initiatives take place. Described here are some of the key processes, highlighting the efforts to achieve professional solidarity, and the interventions, by social workers, federal “insiders” and outside advocacy agents that carried the work forward.

Abstract: This article analyzes the role of social work in the context of the special political, economic, cultural, and historical background in China. A historical perspective is used to understand the evolution of the Chinese welfare system and explain the timing of reintroducing the social work profession. A pluralistic perspective is adopted to define social work relating to different stakeholders in social welfare and services. The government starts to diminish its role as a direct service provider. The traditional family and community have less capacity to take care of people.

Abstract: Child abuse and neglect in the United States resulted in 676,569 reports in 2011 (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2012). Workers in this field struggle with low pay, high caseloads, inadequate training and supervision, and risk of violence, all of which contribute to worker burnout and poor worker retention rates. Worker self-efficacy is predictive of worker retention, job performance, and persistence in this difficult field. This paper reports the development of a new measure of self-efficacy from a sample of 395 child welfare workers.

This report presents findings from a randomized controlled trial of a parenting and family skills intervention for Burmese migrant and displaced families living on the Thai–Burmese border.  The evaluation was carried out by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in collaboration with researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and Duke University. The study examined whether the parenting and family skills intervention had an impact on parenting practices, family functioning, child behavior, psychosocial wellbeing, and resilience.

This report presents findings from a parenting intervention that was implemented in post-conflict Liberia, where young children face many of the risk factors identified as detrimental to their development. In 2012–2013, the IRC implemented a parenting intervention, called Parents Make the Difference, in Lofa County, Liberia. The IRC collaborated with Duke University to undertake an impact evaluation of the program using a randomized controlled trial design.

This report provides an assessment of a three-year project, Strengthening Systems to Protect Vulnerable Children and Families in Cambodia, which ran from 2009 – 2012.

This review provides an overview of the current situation of social work practice in Cambodia.  It examines the degree of professionalization and institutionalization of the social work profession and practice in government, assesses UNICEF-supported social work trainings, and recommends methods for strengthening the practice of social work in both the short- and long- term.

This document provides an overview of the National Child Protection Curriculum developed in Uganda. The development of this Child Protection Curriculum and related training materials is recognized as a first step by the Ministry of Gender, the Ministry of Labour and Social Development, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Child Protection Working Group in Uganda, and selected academic institutions to professionalize the child protection sector within the broader realm of social service workforce development in Uganda.

This report presents findings and insights generated through a mapping and assessment of 6 state child protection systems in Nigeria. The process began in September 2013 and was completed in 2014. The goal of the mapping was to provide State actors with a profile of existing child protection systems and to provide recommendations to remedy existing gaps as revealed through the mapping exercise. This report serves as a guide towards strengthening the existing formal and informal child protection components (including the social service workforce), functions and local context.