#deinstitutionalisation

Model for Setting Up Alternative Care System: Increase Govt Involvement

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

Part 17 of the explanation with the ToC: Whether this step is relevant, depends on the circumstances of your transition. If you are working with or for the government at the national level to set up a family-based alternative care system, obviously there is no need to get the government more involved in the process and the system.

Model for Setting Up Alternative Care System: Preparing Children 1

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

Part 15 of the explanation with the ToC: Once a decision has been made about where a child is going to go, that is just the start of a lengthy road to move the child out. You cannot simply tell the child that this is what has been decided and then have him or her pack his or her things and be dropped off at a new home. Even if the child is to return to his or her own family, a period of preparation is necessary.

Model for Setting Up Alternative Care System: Redirecting Resources

Posted on June 8, 2020May 14, 2020 by Florence

Part 14 of the explanation with the ToC: When an institution is to be closed, there tends to be a lot of resistance on many accounts, one of them being the ‘loss’ or ‘waste’ of the resources available to the institution. Generally, a residential childcare institution will have a building, possibly with land, furnishings of all kinds, supply stores and possibly vehicles. It will also have a funding stream to cover its costs and staff to run the place and take care of the children. Staff tends to be extremely worried about losing their jobs, in addition to other misgivings.

Model for Setting Up Alternative Care System: Designing Services

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

Part 13 of the explanation with the ToC: Using the information gathered during the initial data collection and the individual assessments of children and their family, it is possible to get an overview of what services are needed, for how many people in what locations, whether these services are already available, whether organisations are operating in the relevant locations that might be willing and able to set up and run services there for ‘your’ children to use, whether you need to provide these organisations with support to do so (and if so, what kind of support), or whether you can build on existing services yourself; and what services are needed and not present in any form, and so need to be set up from scratch, by you.

Model for Setting Up Alternative Care System: Recruit Foster Carers

Posted on June 1, 2020May 14, 2020 by Florence

Part 12 of the explanation with the ToC: Like the individual assessments, the recruitment and selection of foster families, caregivers for small group homes, mentors for supported living and other people who will be taking care of children in the community in the alternative care options that will be established, needs to be done at the local level. Ideally, children should be placed within the community that they came from or if that is not possible, the community near the school they have attended while in the institution. This provides the child with some established connections to the people living nearby.

Model for Setting Up Alternative Care System: Individual Assessment

Posted on May 28, 2020May 14, 2020 by Florence

Part 11 of the explanation with the ToC: No matter whether you are working on the national, district or grassroots level, individual assessments need to be done for every single child, to be able to determine what his or her situation is and what kind of placement is in his or her best interest.

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: 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.