slide

Advocacy Toolkit: Better care services for unaccompanied and separated migrant children in Europe

The Pancyprian Coordinating Committee for the Protection and Welfare of CEurochild has drafted an advocacy toolkit as part of the EU project FORUM FOR Unaccompanied Minors: transfer of knowledge for professionals to increase foster care, coordinated by Fondazione l’Albero della Vita

Refugee and migrant children often live in detention centres or in big refugee camps, with no possibility to interact with the local community or attend school. Institutional care is too often used over other forms of care such as family or community-based care, despite the fact that it is recognised as having severe negative effects on children’s physical, cognitive and emotional development, and is not cost effective in the long term.

The provision of appropriate care adapted to the needs of unaccompanied and separated migrant children is essential for their well-being, protection and development. As such, Eurochild has drafted an advocacy toolkit as part of the EU project FORUM FOR Unaccompanied Minors: transfer of knowledge for professionals to increase foster care, coordinated by Fondazione l’Albero della Vita, a member of Eurochild.

The purpose of this toolkit is to assist child rights advocates and other professionals in influencing the governments at national and sub-national level, to promote the development of better care services for unaccompanied and separated migrant children in the EU.

This toolkit aims to:

  • Provide an overview of the EU context, current policies and funding in the area of (children’s) migration

and care services

  • Identify the current state of discussions around the rights of migrant children and key messages
  • Offer tips and tools for building an effective advocacy strategy
  • Promote child participation in advocacy around decisions that affect children

The EU- funded project Forum for Unaccompanied Minors: transfer of knowledge for professionals to increase foster care aims to expand national systems of family-based care for the reception of unaccompanied migrant children, partnering with organisations in Italy, Spain, Austria, Slovenia, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

However, this toolkit can be equally used by actors working in the field of children’s rights and migration in other countries.

Download the advocacy toolkit (PDF)




Related Resources

slide
26 March 2024

The Power of Play

We are proud to unveil the launch of the Children and Young People's Call to Action on 'The Power of Play'. This initiative is the culmination of extensive global online…
read more
slide
5 February 2024

Paving the way to realise children’s rights online in Europe

Sub-report on children's rights online based on assessments provided by 32 Eurochild members in 22 countries. This report compiles information on children’s rights in the digital environment extracted from Eurochild’s…
read more
slide
24 January 2024

Cyprus - 2023 Country Profile

Read our latest 2023 country profile with feedback from our member from Cyprus This country profile is taken from "Children's Rights: Political will or won't?", our 2023 report on children in need across…
read more