Six years have passed since the start of Family-Based Solutions. The past year has brought an interesting combination of continuing involvement in projects and exciting new things.
Continue reading “The Sixth Year of Family-Based Solutions”Author: Florence
I am the founder of and consultant at Family-Based Solutions. I have started this website and this community, and I am the moderator. I have been involved in alternative care since 2007, having been involved up close in China, Brazil, India, Kenya and Myanmar.
Initially I ran another NGO dedicated to improving the chance of survival and the quality of life of children in institutions, over time getting more and more involved with family-based alternatives and community services. In 2018 I folded the previous NGO and founded Family-Based Solutions. You can find more information on what I do now on the other pages of this website.
The Need to Address Trauma to Achieve Progress
I would like to share the model I created for a poster presentation at the UNESCO conference in Galway last month. Showing why it is essential to address the root causes of trauma and trauma that is present in people to be able to connect and make progress whether it is at the personal level or the societal level.
Please share to help spread awareness.
Raising Funds for the Compendium Project
The compendium project – bringing together and doing a quality analysis of all available practical tools for implementing alternative care reform and making them easily accessible – continues to progress. However, progress has been slower recently, because I am currently unable to fully dedicate myself to the project.
To reduce the delays inevitable in fully self-funding the compendium project, I have started a fundraiser on GoFundMe. If you would like to help ensure that free access to the outcomes of the project is available around the world as soon as possible, you can donate HERE. Sharing the GoFundMe link is much appreciated too.
Discovering the Road to Peace
While out on a walk, letting my mind drift, things started to connect in my brain. What is happening in the world at the moment, my professional knowledge and my personal experiences came together to form what seems like a coherent answer to an apparently unanswerable question. I have posted this on LinkedIn, and want to share it here as well, where it doesn’t get buried as quickly.
When it feels like the world is crumbling the question that comes up again and again is: what would it take to achieve real, lasting peace? It can seem like a theoretical question, a mental exercise, but, having given it some thought, I believe there is a real answer and solution. It is a simple one, but not an easy one: Achieving peace requires ensuring that everyone receives help to recognise and resolve their trauma, in combination with truly universal social protection and access to basic services (this addition because as will be mentioned severe and long-term poverty is a significant stressor that can lead to a trauma experience).
Continue reading “Discovering the Road to Peace”2023 Was Quite a Year
It was not apparent to everyone from the outside, but 2023 was very different for me. The first half of the year I was able to do some work, the accomplishments I listed in the blog about what happened in the fifth year of Family-Based Solutions, which you can find HERE. Because when I work, I tend to be highly productive, to many people that may have even looked at a fairly productive period for me. But it really was not.
Continue reading “2023 Was Quite a Year”What About the Careleavers We Don’t Hear from?
A while ago, I saw a post on damaged WWII aeroplanes. Somehow, that got connected for me to careleavers and how we need to do better for them. A strange connection, but one that increasingly makes a lot of sense. I’ll tell you why.
Continue reading “What About the Careleavers We Don’t Hear from?”Training Programme on Understanding the Trauma of Children from Institutions
There is suddenly a flurry of blogs I’m putting out. That is because there are so many interesting new developments taking place that I am excited to share with you. In this case, the training programme that I have developed. Making sure that people involved in moving children from institutions to families really understand what to take into account during assessments and how to support families and children does not end with pushing a book into their hands. Most people – particularly those new to these topics – will need training and opportunities to ask questions, discuss issues, and connect the new information to their work experience to implement and integrate it into their daily work practice.
Continue reading “Training Programme on Understanding the Trauma of Children from Institutions”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.
Continue reading “A Call for Collaboration on the Compendium Project”The Fifth Year of Family-Based Solutions
Amazing to already be marking half a decade of Family-Based Solutions. It continues to be astonishing how quickly time passes and how fast things keep developing. Five years ago, I certainly would not have thought to hope that I would be looking back on the kind of year I have had. With some things continuing and various new things appearing and new plans being formed.
Continue reading “The Fifth Year of Family-Based Solutions”Advocacy Material from Understanding the Trauma of Children from Institutions
‘Understanding the Trauma of Children from Institutions. A training manual for case workers’ is not only useful for people involved in moving children from institutions to families to increase their knowledge and awareness about the effects of institutionalisation and how they can support families to help children catch up. Because it gives detailed information about how care in institutions differs from care in families and in what ways this causes harm, it also provides important ‘ammunition’ for advocacy for alternative care reform towards family-based care and family strengthening.
Continue reading “Advocacy Material from Understanding the Trauma of Children from Institutions”