The moment has finally come. Just before Christmas, the technical report and the policy brief of the DataCare Project were ready to be made public. The crown on more than a year and a half of work (not including the preparations, which I was not involved in) on a very ambitious project. It has been a real joy to have been a part of the research team that made it happen.
Continue reading “The Results of the DataCare Project”Tag: #Eurochild
Three Years Family-Based Solutions, in a New Place
Time to take stock again, as Family-Based Solutions enters its fourth year, as a registered consultancy business this time. Some major changes have taken place in my personal life, which resonate through to Family-Based Solutions. Here I will give you an update on the changes and accomplishments.
Continue reading “Three Years Family-Based Solutions, in a New Place”Two Years (Why) Family-Based Solutions
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.
Continue reading “Two Years (Why) Family-Based Solutions”Eurochild’s DataCare Project
In November, I mentioned my excitement at learning that Eurochild was planning to start a research project to see whether it would be possible to come to definitions of alternative care provisions that would make data comparable across Europe. The reason why this got me so excited, is that when I was doing the research for Alternative Care for Children Around the Globe (which you can download HERE), the main problems I ran into were lack of data gathered on vulnerable children and data not being comparable between – and sometimes even within – countries.
Continue reading “Eurochild’s DataCare Project”Children in Foster Care and Lockdown
An interesting topic came up at a webinar on Children in Alternative Care I attended during the Eurochild Member Days in June: the effects of lockdown on children in foster care. In various countries, surveys have been held to find out how children in foster care were coping with the lockdown. Some of the results were expected, some less so.
Continue reading “Children in Foster Care and Lockdown”Good News on Child Protection Measures
Over the previous month, I have posted blogs raising awareness about the risks and dangers ahead for vulnerable children, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the recession that will follow it. However, I do not just want to focus on the gloomy side. It is important to acknowledge the various plans, measures and campaigns that are being prepared and implemented. So, that is what I would like to do in this blog.
Continue reading “Good News on Child Protection Measures”Childonomics for Recovery
In March, I wrote a blog about my discovery of Childonomics (HERE) and the potential that I see in it. When I started to think about the ways in which we need to prepare for the recovery period after the pandemic, the Childonomics methodology sprang to mind almost immediately. In a situation with which everyone is unfamiliar, where no one has a clear idea of what is needed or what would be the best road to take, Childonomics can really provide a tool to help make informed policy decisions.
Continue reading “Childonomics for Recovery”An Update on Goings On
After 20 blogs laying out the explanation with the Theory of Change model for deinstitutionalisation or setting up a comprehensive child protection system, it feels like coming back after having been away for a while. For ten weeks, I have not been able to comment on current events and the work that I have been doing – except on the forum (which you can find HERE). That has not always been easy because a lot has been going on. Still, I do not regret ‘taking this time away’. I think it was important to provide the information given over the previous 20 blogs and to have posted other blogs in between would have created confusion. In any case, now the time has come to catch up again.
Continue reading “An Update on Goings On”Childonomics
During the IFCO seminar in London, last December, I was first introduced to the concept of Childonomics, when Jana Hainsworth, Secretary General of Eurochild, mentioned it in her presentation. The little I learned about it that day immediately caught my imagination. And as soon as I was able to find the time to dive deeper into it, I did and became even more interested.
Continue reading “Childonomics”Teenagers Will Rebel
At the IFCO seminar in London, early December, Jackie Sanders of the Fostering Network made an interesting remark. She mentioned speaking to a young adult who had been in foster care, who told her that at 16 years old, she had told her social worker that she wanted a different foster family, because she could not stand her foster parents, and the social worker had said ‘okay’, and the girl had been moved. Looking back as a young adult, she realised that this was crazy, that teenagers will all at some point feel that they do not want to live with their parents (regardless of whether they are her foster or birth parents) anymore and that this should never be allowed to lead to a placement breakdown. Yet, it did.
Continue reading “Teenagers Will Rebel”