Strategies to Strengthen Families

Challenging Heights: Platforms for Children’s Voices to Be Heard

Tags: Community Strengthening Jesus was quick to say, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them” (Matthew 19:14). His words were countercultural in a time and place when children’s voices were rarely heard; His words continue to provoke our thoughts and actions as we engage with children, especially those most marginalized. The Faith to Action Initiative recognizes the need to create platforms for children’s voices to be heard as one of its core guiding principles: “It is important to listen to the voices of children and families, respond to their concerns, and [...]

Challenging Heights: Platforms for Children’s Voices to Be Heard2024-01-17T17:39:42-05:00

Pivoting Methods to Create Sustainable Impact: One Woman’s Story of Transition to Family-Based Care

Tags: Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment In the local Ugandan dialect, Akola means simply “she works.” Yet, for many Ugandan women and their families, it represents much more. Akola Project began in 2007 with the mission to empower women in poverty to transform the well-being of their families and communities through economic development. Since its start, Akola has helped create economic stability for 400 women and over 3,000 dependents in their care. This impact is possible because of a young woman’s willingness to pivot her method of achieving her calling. In 2004, Brittany Merrill Underwood, [...]

Pivoting Methods to Create Sustainable Impact: One Woman’s Story of Transition to Family-Based Care2024-03-11T11:37:59-04:00

Bright Hope: Providing Family Support through Church Partnership

Tags:  Community Strengthening Children grow best in families. This is true whether a child is born into great wealth or extreme poverty. However, in far too many communities around the world, it is poverty that is preventing children from growing up in the care of a family. Poverty is a driving force that pushes children into orphanages or thrusts them out into a life on the streets, creating social orphans and vulnerable children. Fortunately, local churches and faith-based NGOs around the world are partnering together and responding to the needs of these children in the [...]

Bright Hope: Providing Family Support through Church Partnership2024-01-17T17:33:40-05:00

A Place to Call Home, A Person(s) to Call Family

Tags: Economic Empowerment Millions of children in Africa are growing up in orphanages, residential care centers, and children’s homes. Most of these institutions identify themselves as “homes” and “family” to these children. But are these residential care institutions really “home” or “family”? I grew up in an institution, and it didn’t feel like a family and I didn’t have the feeling that I was home. On the contrary, the place gave me a feeling of emptiness, uncertainty, and confusion. My two siblings (younger sister and older brother) were taken to a hospital, then to an [...]

A Place to Call Home, A Person(s) to Call Family2024-01-17T17:32:08-05:00

Family First: A Global Partnership Between Roblealto and Bethany Community Church

Tags:  Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment Roblealto Child Care Association puts families at the forefront of its work with vulnerable children in San Jose, Costa Rica. Roblealto supports a holistic approach to restore at-risk children to loving and supportive relationships with their parents and provides resources for parents to achieve self-sufficiency for their families. Roblealto’s programs include four child care centers throughout San Jose, group homes, and a youth alumni group to support and empower youth leaving their programs. Child care centers seek to prevent separation of children from their families and strengthen family support [...]

Family First: A Global Partnership Between Roblealto and Bethany Community Church2024-01-17T17:28:29-05:00

The Role of Parent Education and Support in Strengthening Families and Improving Child Well-Being

We all know that parents and other individuals responsible for the daily care of children (usually referred to as “caregivers”) need good parenting and caregiving skills to support their children’s healthy development and well-being. Most parents and caregivers do fairly well raising their children without receiving any parenting education or external support. However, some do need it. This is particularly important for parents and caregivers with little education, who don’t have access to health and social services, and who are dealing with different stressful situations in their family, such as poverty, disability, substance abuse, domestic violence, illness and death, [...]

The Role of Parent Education and Support in Strengthening Families and Improving Child Well-Being2024-01-17T17:26:19-05:00

CAFO Webinar on Empowering Caregivers

This Wednesday, January 13th, Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) will launch the fourth in a  monthly webinar series, Knowledge + Practice. These webinars translate research into actionable information that OVC care practitioners can implement immediately to elevate the quality of the care they provide. This webinar is called “Empowering Caregivers: Practical Parenting Training (Adolescent Edition)" and will take place on Wednesday from 11am – 12pm Eastern.  Research and common knowledge both suggest that the most influential relationship in a child's life is with his or her caregiver.  A strong caregiver relationship can limit the effects of trauma, increase a child's [...]

CAFO Webinar on Empowering Caregivers2024-01-17T17:25:33-05:00

New Better Care Network Working Paper on Gatekeeping

Published jointly with UNICEF, Better Care Network has recently released a new working paper focused on the role of gatekeeping in strengthening family-based care and reforming alternative care systems. Gatekeeping refers to systematic procedures aimed at ensuring that alternative care for children is used only when necessary, and that the type of care provided is suitable to the individual child. This Working Paper reviews different approaches to gatekeeping in five countries: Brazil, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Moldova, and Rwanda. In each context, the working paper explores what has and has not worked, analyzes lessons learned from practice, and reflects on the implications for improving policy [...]

New Better Care Network Working Paper on Gatekeeping2024-01-17T17:24:17-05:00

Displacement and Family Separation for Syrian Refugee Children

Tags: Community Strengthening According to the United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the world is facing the biggest refugee crisis since WWII, having surpassed 50 million people who have been forced to leave their homes as refugees, as asylum seekers, or as internally displaced persons (IDPs) within their home countries. This massive increase is driven largely by the civil war in Syria, which will reach the five-year mark in a few months. According to World Vision, “The crisis in Syria affects more than 12 million people—more than those affected by Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti [...]

Displacement and Family Separation for Syrian Refugee Children2024-01-17T17:23:26-05:00

The Image of God and the Abilities of All

Tags:  Community Strengthening The United Nations declared today, December 3rd, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Around the world on this day, the abilities of all people are to be celebrated, even (and especially) those of vulnerable children. Followers of Christ believe that all human beings are created in the image of God (Imago Dei), and therefore have the capacity and the right to thrive in relationship with one another. Yet while God’s image is within all people, in many parts of the world children with disabilities continue to be relegated to the uttermost [...]

The Image of God and the Abilities of All2024-01-17T18:07:45-05:00

CAFO Webinar on Gatekeeping

This Wednesday, Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) will launch the second in a new monthly webinar series, Knowledge + Practice. These webinars translate research into actionable information that OVC care practitioners can implement immediately to elevate the quality of the care they provide. October's webinar focused on child protection policy. You can view this webinar here. The second webinar is called “Gatekeeping: Reducing Unnecessary Entry Into Alternative Care"  and will take place on Wednesday, November 4th from 2 PM – 3 PM EST. Dr. Delia Pop of Hope and Homes for Children will explore effective methods for identifying families at [...]

CAFO Webinar on Gatekeeping2024-01-17T18:03:58-05:00

Finding Life After Institution

Tags: Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment In Kenya, a movement of remarkable new leaders is working to assist young adults who have aged out of institutions and are trying to find their way in life. This network of people is the Kenya Society of Careleavers (KESCA) organization, “by and for adults (18+ years), who spent all or part of their childhood in children homes, orphanages, and/or rehabilitation centers.” The systems that “raised” them often provide no mechanisms for navigating life after they leave the institution, and with no familial support network, life can be devastatingly [...]

Finding Life After Institution2024-01-17T18:01:43-05:00

New Resources Available on Strategies for Strengthening Family Care!

The Faith to Action Initiative is excited to announce the release of new resources on strategies for strengthening family care. A Continuum of Care for Orphans and Vulnerable Children explains that the best way to serve vulnerable children is to strengthen the capacity of families to care for them. Family-strengthening strategies and services help address many of the root causes of separation from family care. To better understand and engage this topic, the following resources are now available for your use: Webinar 3: Strategies for Strengthening Family Care is the third in a three-part series providing an introduction to [...]

New Resources Available on Strategies for Strengthening Family Care!2024-01-17T17:59:53-05:00

CAFO Webinar on Optimizing Your Child Protection Policy

This Wednesday, Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) will launch the first in a new monthly webinar series, Knowledge + Practice. These webinars will translate research into actionable information that OVC care practitioners can implement immediately to elevate the quality of the care they provide. The first webinar is called "Optimizing Your Child Protection Policy: Five Key Components For Keeping Children Safe" and will take place on Wednesday, October 21st from 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM EDT. For more information or to register, please visit CAFO's website.

CAFO Webinar on Optimizing Your Child Protection Policy2024-01-17T17:59:03-05:00

Strengthening Children and Families Through Agricultural Development

Tags: Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment Roots. They dig deep into the soil, drawing up water and nutrients so the rest of the plant can flourish and bear fruit. If roots are infected, or too shallow, or lacking essential nutrients for survival, the entire plant will become susceptible to disease and fail to thrive. Similarly, children rooted in chronic poverty are far more susceptible to exploitation and abuse. When we talk about the root causes that create vulnerable conditions for children and orphans, we often have to dig deep into the brokenness lying beneath the soil’s surface. [...]

Strengthening Children and Families Through Agricultural Development2024-01-17T17:57:06-05:00

Fostering Hope in Guatemala

Tags: Adoption | Foster Care | Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment In Guatemala, when a child becomes an orphan, is a victim of abuse or exploitation, or is separated from family-based care, the primary response, historically, has been to place that child in a residential care facility. In 2013, UNICEF reported that 5,800 Guatemalan children were living in orphanages with large disparities of caregivers and children. Unfortunately, research shows that there are long-term, and sometimes permanent, negative effects institutional care can have on a child physically, emotionally, cognitively, and socially. Buckner International, a Christian organization working [...]

Fostering Hope in Guatemala2024-01-17T17:56:19-05:00

Fuller Theological Seminary: Equipping Students in Family-Based Care

Tags: Community Strengthening Fuller Theological Seminary is helping students thoughtfully understand and support evidence-based practices in action as practitioners. Thought leaders around the country at centers of learning like the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller, work to mold the experienced, as well as the inexperienced, into practitioners who go into the world to implement orphan care practices that align with the best interests of children. Fuller Theological Seminary’s Dr. David Scott, Assistant Professor of Intercultural Studies and Children at Risk, and Dr. Sheryl Ryan, Adjunct Faculty in the School of Intercultural Studies, are two [...]

Fuller Theological Seminary: Equipping Students in Family-Based Care2024-01-17T17:54:57-05:00

OVCsupport.net Webinar Series: Linking HIV and Child Protection

The following news update comes from OVCsupport.net: There is an increasing focus within the children and AIDS community on the need to ensure that child protection contributes to HIV prevention, treatment and mitigation targets. The 2014 Call to Action for Protection, Care and Support for an AIDS-Free Generation emphasizes that global targets to reduce vertical HIV transmission, increase HIV treatment and prevent new HIV infections cannot be achieved without addressing underlying factors of child abuse, violence, exploitation and neglect, along with other social and economic factors that increase HIV vulnerability. The Call to Action comes at a time of [...]

OVCsupport.net Webinar Series: Linking HIV and Child Protection2024-01-17T17:51:57-05:00

Quietly Investing in the Zimbabwean Church

Tags: Community Strengthening Where would you go if your family were on the verge of separation because you could no longer afford to feed your children? What if your support system—family, friends, community—were all in the midst of similar circumstances themselves and unable to help you? Whom would you trust? In Zimbabwe, Forgotten Voices highlights how the local church is in a unique position to support family preservation, and how this kind of work is pursued with tenacity and faithfulness. Otto Monroy, Vice President of Forgotten Voices, believes that strengthening the church is a critical [...]

Quietly Investing in the Zimbabwean Church2024-01-17T17:49:47-05:00

Reducing Stigma: Retrak’s Model of Reunifying Street Children With Families

Tags: Economic Empowerment For any child longing to be reunited with his or her family, the emotional and psychological hurdles can be enormous. This is particularly true for children being reintegrated with their families and communities after living on the streets—due to a range of issues, including family breakdown, death of a parent, and poverty. Street children, in some ways, live their lives in the shadows. They are often forced into unpaid labor positions or a lifestyle of begging. Yet despite the aspects of life that are largely unseen, the stigma attached to a child who has [...]

Reducing Stigma: Retrak’s Model of Reunifying Street Children With Families2024-01-17T17:48:46-05:00
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