A Guide for Supporting Community-led Child Protection Processes

This Guide and its companion Toolkit were developed by the Child Resilience Alliance (CRA), formerly known as the Columbia Group for Children in Adversity, with Mike Wessells serving as the lead author and coordinator, for the Interagency Learning Initiative on Community-Based Child Protection Mechanisms and Child Protection Systems. The purpose of this Guide and its companion Toolkit is to offer a sustainable approach that is led by communities rather than by experts or non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Community led approaches can take many forms, but all of them feature community power, dialogue, and decision-making-including by children. Community-led approaches generate high levels of community ownership, enable stronger harm prevention and sustainability, and decrease dependency on NGOs and externally-led child protection initiatives.