A Call for Collaboration on the Compendium Project

I have started an ambitious independent project. It aims to build on various resources and tools that are developed by different (I)NGOs and practitioners to provide concrete guidance on implementation for various parts of the process of transitioning alternative care from institutional to family-based. I intend to map the resources and tools – also those developed for specific countries – available, (and am able to read documents in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Dutch). The project will go beyond an overview of what is out there and where it can be found. It will include a full analysis of the strengths, weaknesses of, and gaps in and between the different resources and tools. The mapping will only be the first stage of the project. The second stage will be to develop a document – or given the eventual size, really more of a compendium – in which the strongest elements from all the resources will be brought together (properly referenced) and to create new material to fill the gaps identified.

This will be done through a desk review of existing resources and tools. Therefore this is a call to organisations and practitioners willing to collaborate and support this work to share the resources they have developed, both those already publicly available and those currently not made public. The desk review will be supplemented by consultations with experts – including care leavers – willing to give their time. Both through conversations and, if I can find willing partners, through collaborations. Additionally, I will look for validation of an early draft of the final ‘product’.

The areas that I will seek to cover, are those generally acknowledged to be fundamental to successful transitioning:

• Communication and awareness-raising
• Structures of reform management and creating enabling conditions
• Planning of logistics and capacity building for transition
• Review of alternative care system at national, regional and local level
• Review of support and services available in the community (formal and informal)
• Design and creation of services, support, and alternative care options not yet in place
• Redirection of resources
• Assessment and preparation of children and families (including case management and recruitment and screening of families)
• Monitoring and evaluation
• Aftercare
• Other (including child and family participation, care leaver involvement in design, breaking down stigma, trauma-informed approach, consideration for particularly vulnerable groups – such as children with disabilities, marginalised minority background, nomadic communities, children on the move, street-connected children, child trafficking, child marriage, child soldiers, children in conflict/contact with the law, harmful practices etc)

The reason I have decided to start this project is that there are many tools and resources, and more appearing constantly. There is a lot of duplication and reinventing the wheel, as well as significant gaps. All of these resources are incredibly important and valuable. However, in my work of helping organisations and governments put transition of care into practice, when I point to these references, the response is generally that this is wonderful, but ‘what should be the next practical step?’ In practice, a reasonable amount of technical knowledge is needed to be able to efficiently find the resources and tools relevant to the issue ‘currently facing us’. As well as to be able to assess the quality of what you have found.

I will take this on and get as far as I can with or without the support of others. I am unaffiliated with any NGO or other organisation working on care reform and will rely on my technical expertise to determine what should or should not be included. Hopefully, this will eventually be validated by those willing to review the work along the way.

I am also looking for funding, to enable me to focus on this work instead of having to plan it around other paid consultancies and thereby requiring substantially more time to complete the project. I will work on it regardless of whether I find the funding or not.

The outcome of this project will obviously not be a definitive work, but hopefully, it can provide a starting point and something that all people involved in alternative care reform can benefit from – saving much time and resources currently expended on repeatedly reinventing the wheel. I am encouraged by three organisations having already expressed their interest in discussing the possibility of collaboration further, and I am hoping to hear from others.

Please share this to help spread awareness and find collaborators