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Alternative care
Millions of children are living without the loving, nurturing care that allows them to be safe and grow up enjoying their childhood. Many children remain in families unable to offer them adequate care because they are too poor and lack adequate support. Other children end up in poor quality alternative care or on the street.
Save the Children recognizes that residential care can be appropriate for a small minority of children and should be available as a last resort for those children with no other options. In those contexts, regulated, safe institutions that meet agreed-upon standards can save children's lives and give them opportunities to learn and develop that they would not otherwise have. However, scientific evidence suggests that institutional care can cause significant harm to children's physical, intellectual and emotional development, with children under the age of three being particularly at risk.
Save the Children supports the development of family-based alternative care options in children's own communities for those children who cannot be with their parents. These options include foster care, kinship care and domestic adoption. The organization supports the transition away from existing institutional care services while at the same time ensuring minimum standards during the remaining time institutions provide care for children.
There is also growing international, regional and country level action towards tackling both care and protection issues via strengthening national child protection systems and reforming the care system within the broader framework.
Photo: Chloe White/Save the Children
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Case Study. Creating a competent workforce by training social workers in Indonesia
A Case Study for social work education in Indonesia. Save the Children's efforts in this area would help create a competent work force of social welfare professionals who could assist in implementing the "institution to family based care" support for vuln
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Improving Child Protection Responses in Indonesia: Learning from the Protection Homes for Children (RPSAs
This report, written by Florence Martin, is based on the results of research carried out as a joint collaboration between the Ministry of Social Affairs (Kemensos), Save the Children in Indonesia and a team of Social Workers and Social Scientists from STK
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Retrak PEPFAR Summary Report: Sustainable Reintegration of Orphans and Vulnerable Children into Family and Community Life in Uganda and Ethiopia
Retrak is a UK based charity that works with street associated children in Africa to give them a real alternative to life on the street. Between 2008 and 2011, Retrak in Uganda and Ethiopia was able to support over 2800 street children and more than 1800
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Indonesia National Standard of Care for Child Welfare Institution
Indonesia’s National Standards of Care for Child Welfare Institutions is a crucial policy instrument, drafted in response to the recommendations of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, regulating the provision of alternative care for c
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PowerPoint presentations for the Training Manual on Children without Appropriate Care for Asia and the Pacific: Supporting the Care of Children within Families [Session 7a]
PowerPoint presentation that is part of the session materials for "the Training Manual on Children without Appropriate Care for Asia and the Pacific" published by Save the Children Child Protection Initiative (CPI). It presents an overview of the social s
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PowerPoint presentations for the Training Manual on Children without Appropriate Care for Asia and the Pacific: The Misuse and Overuse of Residential Care [Session 5b]
PowerPoint presentation that is part of the session materials for "The Training Manual Children without Appropriate Care for Asia and the Pacific" published by Save the Children Child Protection Initiative (CPI). The presentation focuses on the misuse of
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The Future of Foster Care. A revolution for change. Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute’s 2011 Foster Youth Internship Report
Released by a group of former United States foster youth as a comprehensive report on the system in which they were raised, this report details the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute’s (CCAI) Foster Youth Internship (FYI) recommendations on imp
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Strengthening Child Care Services and Systems- 4th Quarterly report UNICEF/USAID Georgia
Strengthening Child Care Services and Systems documents the Governmental of Georgia's notable steps to facilitate a coordinated approach to child care reform with an emphasis on deinstitutionalization and the development of alternatives, including small s
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Scaling down. Reducing, reshaping and improving residential care around the world. Positive care choices:Working paper No. 1
This working paper summarizes the evidence base on residential care to promote better decision making among policy makers and child welfare practitioners, with priority given to ending residential care for children under three, and care in large scale fac
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Update on Children Without Appropriate Care. Issue No. 2
A second update on children without appropriate care (CWAC) for Save the Children staff working to support CWAC at all levels and in every region. It is part of a series of quarterly updates of policy, research, advocacy and programming news that will hel
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The family conferencing: A ground-breaking practice for community based child protection in Kenya
This research illustrates the findings of a retrospective analysis of 73 Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) conferences conducted in Nairobi, Kenya, between July 2005 and January 2008. The conference addresses the wellbeing of 73 children referred as we
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PowerPoint presentations for the Training Manual Children without Appropriate Care for Asia and the Pacific: Introduction to the Care Strategy of Save the Children [Other Agency Version- Session 1]
PowerPoint presentation that is part of the session materials for "the Training Manual Children without Appropriate Care for Asia and the Pacific" published by Save the Children Child Protection Initiative (CPI). It focuses on the strategies of other orga