Guidelines on Children’s Reintegration

Caring for Separated Children: Reintegration as a First Response

Background

Since 2011, Family for Every Child has been working with child protection agencies to create the new Guidelines on Children’s Reintegration. As part of the interagency working group, the Women’s Refugee Commission endorsed and contributed to the Guidelines. The Guidelines were developed after extensive literature review, and consultations with 158 children, 127 service providers and policy-makers from 66 organizations across 20 countries. The Guidelines were field tested in two countries.

The Guidelines provide practical guidance to help governments, donors, NGOs, faith-based organizations, and practitioners to design high quality programs, measure impact, train practitioners, and pursue national-level systemic change in support of integration.

The Guidelines call for:

• support for children and families at all stages of the process for proper preparation and follow-up
• a holistic package including economic strengthening, access to basic services, therapeutic support, and efforts to address violence and abuse in families
• work to enable communities to monitor and assist reintegrating children, and to reduce stigma and discrimination
• strengthening of child protection systems to create an environment which promotes effective reintegration

 

Key Priorities

There are several key priorities in creating an environment that is fully supportive of integration:

• creating national-level guidance and policies on children’s integration
• building a child welfare workforce that supports children’s integration
• establishing a casework system that supports children and families through all stages of reintegration
• collaborating with practitioners across sectors including child protection services, health, education, economic strengthening, and children with disabilities
• supporting community involvement in children’s integration
• addressing root causes of initial and re-separation (i.e. poverty and violence)
• addressing discrimination against children that have been reintegrated
• evaluating and assessing reintegration programs