Another year has passed, and what a year it has been! Hard to imagine that it is already two years ago that I started to set up Why Family-Based Solutions. One year ago, I wrote about how I was ‘reimagining’ my work (you can read about that HERE) and trying to determine in what direction to take it. In the intervening time, I have developed this further and am quite pleased with how things are going right now.
To start with, as I announced a month ago, the name of the organisation has been changed from Why Family-Based Solutions to Family-Based Solutions. This was mostly a reaction to how the work has been developing and is explained in the blog (HERE).
The year certainly did not go the way any of us would have foreseen a year ago. Since I returned from India in March, I have been working from home, instead of attending a conference in Montreal and numerous other events and meetings (and I will not be going to India and Nepal in September as planned either). Certain things got harder, many things just got different. For a while, I was worried that not having the usual networking opportunities would make it hard to make new contacts and find work. However, I found that the online advocacy I have been doing to raise awareness of the child protection dangers connected to pandemic has created its own opportunities. It has allowed me to meet quite a few people from different organisations online and exchange thoughts and experiences.
Out of the tentative possibilities mentioned a year ago, very few have developed into practical partnerships or work. Though I did up working for SOS Children’s Villages Netherlands and am still in contact with Better Care Network Netherlands. The forum I announced (you can find it HERE) was developed, and people are registering for it, however, the conversation has not really gotten going yet – come join us and share your experiences!
However, other things have materialised and I have been kept quite busy. I am, of course, working on two (or three, not entirely sure yet) books at the moment (that is more or less my default state of being). One explaining the effects of volunteering in institutions, and the other (which may end up being split in two) explaining the long-term effects of institutionalisation on children, to families who are taking a previously institutionalised child into their home. I have developed a Theory of Change model for setting up a child protection system that fully implements the necessity and suitability principles. The explanation for which was posted in 20 blogs, starting HERE.
I have been doing paid and unpaid consultancies – I will always continue to do a combination of the two, to be able to keep my head above water, but also to make sure that grassroots organisations with a real interest in change are able to get the capacity building and guidance they need. I have worked with or for SOS Children’s Villages, Eurochild (on two projects), Children’s Emergency Relief International (CERI), Snehalaya, U&I, and the government of Karnataka.
I am currently also exploring the possibility of ‘adapting’ a great manual for social workers, which was written for the North American context, into a form that makes it suitable for use internationally, particularly in countries where new social work systems are set up, or where rudimentary ones are being developed. I have been approached to participate in PhD research on family-based alternative care in India. And I have received a request to make a bid for another project by SOS Children’s Villages.
What has also been great over the past year, has been getting a clearer idea of the kind of work that I want to focus on, about the ways in which I can contribute most effectively. The areas that I have identified as my greatest strengths are capacity building, providing guidance, and developing frameworks for child protection and alternative care system reform, and technical writing and editing on those subjects.
I cannot wait to see what the coming year is going to bring. One more change I can already announce, however. As I am increasingly busy with a wide variety of work, and as more than 180 blogs have already been posted on many different subjects, I will be reducing my blog posts from twice a week to once a week from now on, and may in time drop down to ‘when needed’. I feel that I have provided a foundation of basic knowledge on the main topics I am involved in, in the current ‘blog-library’ and that going forward commenting on issues as they arise will be more useful than spending time trying to come up with two blogs a week. I hope you will continue to read and be involved.
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