Resources Database

This resource is a communications toolkit for building public support in Kenya for better child development policies and programmes. This collection of research, recommendations and sample communications is designed to help child development advocates increase public understanding.

This handbook provides a comprehensive guide for providers who work in counselling and psychological care of children and adolescents. It includes information on mental health; child protection; counselling and communication; disclosure; transition of care; support systems; and monitoring and evaluation of psychosocial services. 

This article explores the issue of the major reform of the child welfare sector that has been carried out in Russia in recent years, and argues that Russian child welfare nongovernmental organizations have acted in concert with government officials to act as policy entrepreneurs in framing the policy problem and presenting solutions to it in a way that has influenced national priorities in this area.

The science of child development and the core capabilities of adults point to a set of “design principles” that policymakers and practitioners in many different sectors can use to improve outcomes for children and families. This resource lists three specific principles: support responsive relationships for children and adults, strengthen core life skills and reduce sources of stress in the lives of children and families.

Implementation science literature emphasizes the importance of teaming—the process of working together as a team, including understanding how teams are formed and how they function. This brief can help child welfare agency leaders, managers, and stakeholders build teams to guide the change and implementation process. Much of the information here may also be useful to building teams for other purposes in child welfare organizations, such as continuous quality improvement (CQI).

The urgent need to strengthen the child protection system in India is presented in the context of the Integrated Child Protection Scheme and relevant juvenile justice legislation. Although the whole system is discussed, from national to local levels, the emphasis is on systems development with a comprehensive social work education response. Included are recommendations to develop a professional association of social work educators and the need for national accreditation of social work education in India.

Social safety nets (SSNs) are a main policy tool to address poverty and vulnerability, and there is substantial evidence demonstrating positive effects on children’s health and human capital. This paper reviews evidence and develops a framework to understand linkages between non-contributory SSNs and the experience of childhood emotional, physical and sexual violence in low- and middle-income countries.

This course is intended to orient learners to the basic principles and promising practices related to health workforce development and strengthening. Following the structure of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global HRH Strategy: Workforce 2030, the course introduces concepts and solution-focused examples that aim to support the existing health workforce and build the future health workforce through site-level interventions, policymaking, data use, and other evidence-based initiatives.

This brief outlines the critical importance to understand government capacity and willingness to increase and maximize the efficiency of investments in HRH for HIV.

Ritualistic child sexual abuse (RCSA) is an under-recognized and poorly addressed form of child maltreatment that requires urgent action, yet little has been done to address it. This article suggests some implications for social work training and practice as well as child welfare policy and programming changes.

This presentation demonstrates the need for effective, research-supported strategies to improve recruitment and retention of the child welfare workforce.

This manual examines the roles and responsibilities of child protective services (CPS) workers. It describes the purposes, key decisions and issues of each stage of the CPS process and strategies for casework supervision, training and support.

This is the second in a series of articles regarding the current status of child protection services in the United States and proposals to address its challenges. This paper is on the topic 'Caseworkers Are First Responders. They Deserve the Same Professionalization as Other Essential Personnel.' The article is intended to identify a specific issue, analyze typical or traditional responses to the identified issue, and propose fundamental and substantially new alternatives to addressing the issue faced by child protective agencies.

This practice brief focuses on addressing secondary traumatic stress experienced by child welfare staff, easing children’s transitions into foster care and working with parents who have been impacted by trauma. This brief is intended for child welfare providers and other stakeholders seeking to develop trauma-informed practice.

This manual serves as a toolkit of useful PM&E techniques for improving the performance and impact of community-based interventions, such as those involving the most vulnerable children, home-based care and gender-based violence. The manual includes a five-step PM&E programme path and six community group tools.

Despite the call to enhance the resilience of CPSWs, to date, only five research studies have explored resilience processes in CPSWs. In this article, authors present findings that describe resilience-enhancing practices in the lives of 15 South African CPSWs who were considered resilient.

This report highlights needs for strengthening transitions in and out of foster care, and the importance of respectful and responsive relationships between children, foster parents, families and social workers. The report also makes recommendations for greater support to foster families by increasing capacity of social service providers.

The study has identified key findings and 23 useful recommendations for short-term implementation (up to 2018), medium-term implementation (up to 2023), and long-term implementation (after 2023). Recommendations include increasing capacity of the social service workforce and increasing collaboration across sectors as well as effective legislation and policies to protect children.

Well-supported para-professionals, including CHWs and other home visitors, can be effective partners in addressing health inequities, but training, skills and functions should be clarified and training aligned.

The Minimum Standards (MSCS) have been developed to guide the implementation of the EAC Child Policy (2016). The role of the MSCS is to ensure a coordinated approach to service delivery, in particular at the community level, for all children and young people to strengthen their resilience and support their growth, development, and protection. The MSCS highlights the need to ensure cross-sectoral collaboration between key service providers for children and young people, particularly between health, education, social welfare, and justice to ensure all children’s needs are holistically met.