NEW IN THE BCN LIBRARY:

EveryChild Moldova’s Programme Experience: Improving Children’s Lives through Deinstitutionalization

This Program Review documents the evolution of EveryChild Moldova since 1994, presenting the development of interventions to improve the lives of children through deinstitutionalization and identifying best practices that are relevant, useful, and replicable to other initiatives and organizations around the world.

All Children Count: A Baseline Study of Children in Institutional Care in Malawi

This study commissioned by the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Community Development and financially and technically supported by UNICEF and the Better Care Network, aimed at describing the situation of children in institutional care and creating a database containing all institutions in Malawi catering for children requiring alternative care.

The economic burden of child maltreatment in the United States and implications for prevention

This paper presents new estimates of the average lifetime cost per child maltreatment (CM) victim in the United States and aggregate lifetime costs for all new cases of CM incurred in 2008 using an incidence-based approach. This study extends previous research in this area by correcting methodological flaws of previous studies; incorporating more recent and comprehensive studies of the epidemiology, consequences, and costs of CM; and providing a framework for using the findings in the literature to estimate the incidence-based economic burden of CM.

The Neglect of Child Neglect: A meta-analytic review of the prevalence of neglect

This article describes the results of a meta-analytic review aimed at providing an estimate of the prevalence of physical and emotional neglect by integrating prevalence figures from the body of research reporting on neglect. The authors conclude that neglect seems to be a neglected type of maltreatment in scientific research.

The Long-Term Health Consequences of Child Physical Abuse, Emotional Abuse, and Neglect: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

This study conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of scientific literature to summarize the evidence for associations between individual types of non-sexual child maltreatment and outcomes related to mental and physical health. This review is the first of its kind to demonstrate in aggregate quantitative effects the knowledge behind the associations, using 124 studies mostly from Western Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand.

Chronic Neglect: Bulletin for Professionals

This Child Welfare Information Gateway bulletin for professionals discusses what constitutes chronic neglect, and reviews ways to work with families experiencing chronic neglect, including critical elements of successful casework practice, examples of what agencies are doing, and ways agencies can integrate child welfare approaches to chronic neglect with prevention and early intervention efforts.

Ethiopia: Impact of Parental Death in Middle Childhood and Adolescence on Child Outcomes

Using data from three rounds of the Young Lives longitudinal survey conducted in 2002, 2006, and 2009 in Ethiopia, this paper investigates whether the death of a parent during middle childhood has different effects on a child’s schooling and psychosocial outcomes when compared with death during adolescence.

Because We are Sisters and Brothers: Sibling Relations in Alternative Care

This publication by SOS Children’s Villages International brings together research findings, learning and policy recommendations about sibling relations in alternative care gathered from five different SOS Children’s Villages associations (Germany, Austria, France, Italy, and Spain).

England: Family Stressors and Children's Outcomes 

This study from the Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre, an independent research center with funding from the United Kingdom Department for Education, identifies which family stress factors and parental behaviors are associated with positive and negative outcomes for children at the age of 7 and whether stressful life events experienced in childhood are associated with negative outcomes in adolescence.

Social Security for All: The ILO Social Protection Floors Recommendation 

This edition of Insights produced by UNICEF summarizes the findings and recommendations of studies on the impact and outreach of social protection systems in Albania, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine where high rates of child placement in formal care still persist. The research offers important insight into the weaknesses and challenges faced by social protection systems in the region, but also point to ways in which policy-makers might maximise the impact of social protection systems in order to ‘keep families together’.

Children under the age of three in formal care in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: A rights-based regional situation analysis

Through a comprehensive statistical analysis and literature review, this UNICEF report provides a child rights-based up-to-date review of the situation of children under the age of three in formal care in countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CEECIS). It examines regional and country level trends in the use of institutional care and family based alternative care options, in particular foster care.

Foster Care in India

This article presents the findings of an exploratory survey of community perceptions about foster care conducted in Udaipur City, Rajasthan, in India in order to assess the prospects for implementing foster care as an alternative to the dominant system of institutional care available to orphaned and abandoned children in India.

Moving Forward: Implementation of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children

This major new tool is aimed at legislators, policy-makers and decision-makers, as well as professionals and care providers, to support the implementation of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2009. It explains the key thrusts of the Guidelines, outlines the kind of policy responses required, and describes ‘promising’ examples of efforts already made to apply them in diverse communities, countries, regions and cultures. 

Changing Children's Chances: New Findings on Child Policy Worldwide

This new report by the World Policy Analysis brings together key findings from the book, Children’s Chances: How Countries Can Move From Surviving and Thriving, providing a global picture of what laws, policies, and programs countries have in place to address areas vital to children’s healthy development.

Children's Views of Living with Informal Kinship Carers: Social networks, Stigmas, and Attachment to Carers

This study funded by Big Lottery and undertaken in partnership between the University of Bristol and Buttle UK, a grant-giving charity for vulnerable children, aims to fill gaps in understanding about the experiences of children living with kins, and in particular how children in informal kinship care view their situation.

Skillful Parenting and Molding Behavior at an Early Age: Bridging the Gap Between What We Know ad What We Do

This new study by Parenting in Africa Network (PAN) was conducted in three regions in Kenya (Nairobi, Mombasa and Busia), involving primary care givers of children age 0-8, children participating in Early Childhood Development and Education centers, and stakeholders and professionals involved in skillful parenting and early childhood development.

Permanency for Children: The Development of the BCS Global Foster-to-Adopt Pilot Project in Ethiopia

This report provides initial documentation of a pilot program launched by Bethany Christian Services in 2009 in Ethiopia. The pilot aims at moving children from institutional care to family-based care by developing alternative family care for non-relative children using a foster-to-adopt approach, working through a partnership between faith communities in Ethiopia and American faith congregations in the US.

World Family Map: Mapping Family Change and Child Well-Being Outcomes

The World Family Map Project is a new initiative by Child Trends to monitor the health of family life around the globe and to learn more about how family trends affect the well-being of children. Using internationally comparative data for low-, middle-, and high-income countries on key characteristics of families, including family structure, family socioeconomics, family processes, and family culture, the Map looks at trends in 45 countries, representing every region of the world.

Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action

The Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action were formulated in 2011-2012 by the Child Protection Working Group (CPWG), an inter-agency working group composed of child protection practitioners, academics, and policy makers working to support child protection work in humanitarian settings.       

The Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children Policy Brief

This policy brief by Save the Children introduces the background, goals, and guiding principles of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children endorsed by the UN General Assembly on the 20th of November 2009 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.

When Care Ends Lessons from Peer Research: Insights from Young People on Leaving Care in Albania, the Czech Republic, Finland, and Poland

This report presents the findings from a two-year peer research project which includes the testimony of more than 300 young people with care experience in Albania, the Czech Republic, Finland, and Poland. More than 40 care leavers from the four countries were selected and trained to play an active role in the all aspects of the projects. The interviews revealed widespread inadequacies regarding the process of leaving care, promoting the research team to draw up recommendations to address them.

Child Abandonment and Its Prevention in Europe

This comprehensive manual provides an overview of child abandonment and its prevention in Europe, exploring the extent of child abandonment, possible reasons behind this phenomenon, the consequences of abandonment, and good practices in terms of prevention. Country specific reviews of child abandonment and its prevention are provided for 10 countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and the UK). 

The Chronic Urban Emergency in Rift Valley Kenya: Report From Profiling Children Connected to the Streets in Rift Valley Province

This research was conducted by Save the Children and UNICEF in five Rift Valley towns in Kenya in 2011 to better understand the links between emergencies and the perceived increase of children joining the streets. The authors call for an urgent, large-scale response to place children currently connected to the streets in durable situations such as family reintegration or other forms of care, in tandem with a multi-sectorial development approach to tackle and address the crisis at its root.

Integrating Gender in Care and Support of Vulnerable Children: A Guide for Program Designers and Implementers

This guide provides step-by-step guidance and recommendations on how to identify and address gender-related issues that negatively affect vulnerable boys and girls in the local program context. It is intended to be a practical tool for staff involved in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of care and support programs for vulnerable children.

Family First: Prioritising Support to Kinship Carers, Especially Older Carers

The latest in EveryChild's Positive Care Choices series of papers on children's care options, Family First, calls for greater prioritisation to be given to supporting kinship carers and the children in their care, including ensuring such households are able to access social protection, and receive psycho-social and health care support and assistance with education where needed. 

Deportation's Forgotten Children by the Los Angeles Times 

This op-ed written by two U.S. Congresswomen puts forward the case for the adoption of the Help Separated Families Act, a bill introduced by them in Congress that would make it harder to terminate parental rights solely based on immigration status, and would also allow foster children to be placed in the best homes for them, regardless of the immigration status of the potential guardian. 

How Shall We Care for Haiti's Orphans? 

Following on her New York Times piece in December, 2012, on efforts to try to close down orphanages in Haiti, Emily Brennan discusses debates in the evangelical movement on the approaches used to what some Christian leaders call “orphan care.”

Haiti: Trying to Close Orphanages Where Many Aren't Orphans At All 

A consensus is developing among Haitian government officials and children’s advocates that a new approach is required to reduce the number of orphanages. But the transition is not easy, and some question whether the country is ready for it.

Rwanda: Government On Course to Meet Deadline of Closing Orphanages

Following an ambitious agenda to remove all children from residential care, Rwandan government is on pace.

Ukraine orphans: A life trapped in care

When orphans in Ukraine reach adulthood, some are deemed "incapacitated" - a label that consigns them to a life in institutions. But many of these young people may have nothing wrong with them at all. It is an official classification in Ukraine that critics say strips the bearer of basic human rights.

Cambodia's Orphanage Business

Throughout Cambodia well-intentioned volunteers have helped to create a surge in the number of residential care homes as impoverished parents are tempted into giving up their children in response to promises of a Western-style upbringing and education.