Practitioner Points
- When placing CYP, consideration should be given to placement with or near any extended family, friends of family or other existing community networks.
- Relocation and multiple moves should be avoided.
- Establish and maintain contact with family and others supporting CYP informally to ensure that they support plans for the child and that their involvement in the child's life remains helpful.
- Support children to maintain contact with significant people in their lives, for example through the use of technology, or facilitating visits when family members are within the same country.
- Ensure that CYP are clear about the roles of different professionals and others providing support to help manage expectations.
- Work simultaneously with carers, relatives and family members to support them as caregivers and to prevent the breakdown of a placement or relationships.
- Identify CYP role models in the extended family or community to work with in order to help establish ways for them to connect with children in safe and appropriate ways.
- Use tools such as ecomaps to assess the quality and forms of relationships that a CYP has or wishes to have.
- Seek opportunities, according to the CYP's interests, for involvement in wider community activities and initiatives in order to help them to integrate into the community. For example, sports and social activities.
Resources
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Child's right to identity in alternative care: Policy brief 2
Child Identity Protection (2022)
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Supporting refugee families: Adapting family strengthening programs that build on assets
Bridging Refugee, Youth and Child Services
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Parent/carer group sessions for secondary schools
Including Children Affected by Migration (ICAM) (2022)
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Practical Application Examples
Connecting CYP with their local community
As part of the first steps to making links with the wider community and establishing networks within the local communities where CYP live, METAdrasi have initiated a number of actions depending on CYP's interests, including:
- Enrolment of children in the local swimming pool and in a football team, as well as other sports and social clubs such as Scouts and theatre groups.
- Taking part in volunteer tree planting scheduled by the municipality and the forestry department.
- Cleaning beaches together with environmental organisations and Scouts.
- Participating in a parade for the national day and a music festival together with opportunities to learn national (Greek) dance.
- Attending the celebration of the Christmas tree lighting in the Central Square, helping with a stand at the Christmas market, making Christmas handicrafts to be offered to institutions and individuals who support METAdrasi, and taking part in Christmas and New Year celebrations.
- A birthday party, to which neighbours and Greek classmates were invited.
- Visiting an animal shelter and providing volunteer work, including helping with saving, caring for and watering animals caught up in forest fires during the summer.
Providing a safe space to explore and establish relationships
The Civico Zero Daily Centre in Rome was established to 'give a house number to those who do not have a house number' and provide a place for children and young people who are too often placed in contexts which force them to grow up prematurely.
Meetings between peers with different origins and experiences are fundamental to develop the knowledge essential to build an active dialogue and positive relational dynamics free from prejudice. For this reason, discussion is central to the daily life of the centre, which hosts young foreigners and Italians, promoting authentic and constant inclusion.
The centre uses individual plans aimed at real social inclusion, through pedagogical, legal and psychological assistance aimed at all young people who find themselves in situations of social marginality, deviance and subjected to the risk of exploitation. This assistance includes educational support services (Italian school, legal information, skills development, scholastic support), psychological support (individual and group support), legal support and work and housing services.