#alternativecare

Model for Setting Up Alternative Care System: Capacity Building

Posted on May 25, 2020May 14, 2020 by Florence

Part 10 of the explanation with the ToC: Capacity building is a very general term to indicate things that are needed to make sure that people involved in the project are able to do their jobs or to help where help is needed. It involves:

Model for Setting Up Alternative Care System: Recruitment

Posted on May 21, 2020May 21, 2020 by Florence

Part 9 of the explanation with the ToC: Once you have the data collected and analysed, have come up with a strategy and made a plan and a timeline out of that, have designed awareness-raising and advocacy campaigns and a monitoring and evaluation system to keep an eye on whether it works, you will start to find that the initial transition team is no longer able to handle all the work that needs to be done. As people are needed to run the advocacy campaign, people to run the awareness campaign, people to take care of the monitoring and evaluation, plus you have a mountain of work ahead of you with individual assessments, recruiting and training carers and so on.

Model for Setting Up Alternative Care System: Awareness-Raising & Advocacy 2

Posted on May 18, 2020May 14, 2020 by Florence

Part 8 of the explanation with the ToC: Last Thursday, an overview was given about the kind of issues that require awareness-raising and advocacy and why this is important to take seriously. In this blog, more information will be given on this, and on breaking the news that you are planning to move from institutional to family-based care.

Model for Setting Up Alternative Care System: Awareness-Raising & Advocacy 1

Posted on May 14, 2020May 14, 2020 by Florence

Part 7 of the explanation with the ToC: It could be said that awareness-raising and advocacy are two sides of the same coin. Advocacy is raising awareness in the government and its representatives and through doing so lobbying for necessary changes. Awareness-raising is providing communities, families, and the general public – either individually, in small groups or en masse – with information about issues that they might not have had knowledge or proper insight about previously, to change their mindset and opinion.

Model for Setting Up Alternative Care System: M&E

Posted on May 11, 2020May 14, 2020 by Florence

Part 6 of the explanation with the ToC: Setting up Monitoring and Evaluation Systems for various parts of the project.

There is not an exact moment when you need to start to develop monitoring and evaluation systems, essentially it is something that needs to be put in place for all parts of the transition process where it is possible to check whether the outcomes of what is being done are what they were supposed to be. Monitoring this allows for a course adjustment in a case where the outcomes turn out not to be as hoped.

Model for Setting Up Alternative Care System: Data Gathering & Analysis 2

Posted on May 7, 2020May 14, 2020 by Florence

Part 5 of the explanation of the ToC: In the previous blog we saw why it is so important to gather data and what kind of data needs to be gathered at the national and community level. This week, we see what else is involved in data gathering and Analysis, starting with the data that needs to be gathered at the level of individual institutions.

Model for Setting Up Alternative Care System: Data Gathering & Analysis 1

Posted on May 4, 2020May 14, 2020 by Florence

Part 4 of the explanation with the ToC: Gathering data, in a variety of ways and on a variety of topics, is an essential part of the process. Information on the current situation is the foundation of all decisions, strategies and actions that will be made. Without knowing what is and is not currently present, and the background of why that is so, there is no way of determining what needs to happen and what needs to be put in place.

Model for Setting Up Alternative Care System: Planning

Posted on April 30, 2020May 14, 2020 by Florence

Part 3 of the explanation of the ToC: The first job of the transition manager or the transition team will be to create an overview of what the transition process will entail – something like this model, but with more details relevant to the local situation -, what resources will be needed to take care of at different stages, who will be responsible for taking care of various tasks and a rough timeline on how all of this will fit together. From that overview, a strategy and a plan can be devised.

Model for Setting Up Alternative Care System: Goal and Start

Posted on April 27, 2020May 14, 2020 by Florence

Part 2 of the explanation of the ToC model: The overall goal of this model is the full implementation of the UN Guidelines on Alternative Care for Children. Reaching this goal means that the two underlying principles of these Guidelines are adhered to throughout all systems of child protection and alternative care. These two principles are the Necessity Principle and the Suitability Principle. The Necessity Principle refers to making sure that children grow up in their own family unless it is impossible or not in their best interest for that to happen. In effect, this covers the prevention of family-separation and motivation for making every attempt towards family reintegration, in cases where separation has already taken place.

Dedicated Staff for Deinstitutionalisation

Posted on April 6, 2020April 4, 2020 by Florence

At its core, deinstitutionalisation is a temporary state. It is the transition between running a residential childcare institution and running a family-based alternative care system. While the transition can take up several years depending on the circumstances, it will end. The temporary nature of the deinstitutionalisation process can lead to people underestimating how important and how complicated it is. This, in turn, can lead to a reluctance to really invest in it. However, not mobilising the resources needed to make the process go smoothly is a big mistake and one that can come at both a high human and financial cost.