Remove poverty from the household,
don't remove children from the household.
Stephen Uscembe, Care Leaver and Coordinator of Transform African Alliance
don't remove children from the household.
Stephen Uscembe, Care Leaver and Coordinator of Transform African Alliance
Our theory of change is that we improve the ability of children to recover from difficulties by focusing on the things that instill resiliency, and by tackling the root causes of systemically-ingrained generationally-transferred child poverty.
RESILIENCY:
Dictionary
Definitions from Oxford Languages
re·sil·ience
/rəˈzilēəns/
noun
the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.
We believe that resiliency is the key to survival, and that resiliency is instilled in the circumstances and experiences of childhood.
We believe that a focus on family and community is essential to instilling resiliency.
We cannot alter the likelihood that children will experience trauma and difficulties that threaten their wellbeing, however Helping Children Worldwide is committed to the belief that every child deserves to grow up in a strong, safe, and loving family, and live in a strong, supportive community.
We believe we can help children worldwide by supporting policies, institutions and programs that strengthen and empower families and communities.
We raise funds specifically for the purpose of supporting the efforts of program partners on the ground who are actively engaged in the work of social welfare in a family strengthening and empowering model. We work collaboratively with these organizations to increase program effectiveness, institute best practices, and adapt international program models to meet specific jurisdictional needs for the communities they serve.
We moved into this new theory of change in tandem with our longest partners in Africa, the United Methodist Church Sierra Leone Annual Conference Children's Ministries, and the institution we co-founded, the Child Reintegration Centre in Bo, Sierra Leone. As of July 2018, the residential program of the Child Reintegration Centre (formerly Child Rescue Centre) was officially ended and children in residential care were reintegrated with their families, following careful preparation for both caregivers and children.
Moving forward, the CRC's focus continues to be the support and encouragement of extremely vulnerable families, as well as locating families for unsupervised children in Sierra Leone. Since 2019, the CRC's work has become globally recognized as a best practice model. and the HCW/CRC partnership as a best practice international partnership model.
The CRC and HCW continue to be in the forefront of the international movement to move children out of institutional care, as UNICEF and other child-focused organizations across the globe recognize that caring families are far better at raising emotionally and mentally healthy children than institutions.
CRC and HCW now partner with other child welfare organizations and child protection agencies to exchange best practices, share workshop opportunities and collaborate on child welfare cases in its role in the 1MH Accelerator Partnerships, a global initiative to end the unnecessary institutionalization of children. CRC has a specially devoted department to send teams of social workers to educate and support the work of other institutions across the continent of Africa moving to models of care that will support and strengthen families and instill resilience in children. In 2022, CRC leadership traveled to Liberia, and Nigeria to present before faith based and secular leaders on the impact and possibility of change. In 2023, they presented the theory of change and their role as skilled professionals in implementation of the change model before all of the UMC African Bishops. Five Bishops expressed continued interest in having CRC travel to their country to provide instruction to the institutions in their conference.
HCW and CRC teamed up with a new program partner, Child and Family Permanency Services in Wellington, Freetown, Sierra Leone to promote a national policy change to promote alternatives to institutionalization of orphans and vulnerable children and family-based care models.
HCW supports the work of CRC with a dedicated donor initiative, Family Empowerment Advocacy. - FEA
HCW supports the work of CFPS with a similar dedicated donor initiative, Family Empowerment Advocacy Program - FEAP - CFPS Family Empowerment and Advocacy Program
Learn more about the process of change and the movement to end the institutionalization of children.
RESILIENCY:
Dictionary
Definitions from Oxford Languages
re·sil·ience
/rəˈzilēəns/
noun
the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.
We believe that resiliency is the key to survival, and that resiliency is instilled in the circumstances and experiences of childhood.
We believe that a focus on family and community is essential to instilling resiliency.
We cannot alter the likelihood that children will experience trauma and difficulties that threaten their wellbeing, however Helping Children Worldwide is committed to the belief that every child deserves to grow up in a strong, safe, and loving family, and live in a strong, supportive community.
We believe we can help children worldwide by supporting policies, institutions and programs that strengthen and empower families and communities.
We raise funds specifically for the purpose of supporting the efforts of program partners on the ground who are actively engaged in the work of social welfare in a family strengthening and empowering model. We work collaboratively with these organizations to increase program effectiveness, institute best practices, and adapt international program models to meet specific jurisdictional needs for the communities they serve.
We moved into this new theory of change in tandem with our longest partners in Africa, the United Methodist Church Sierra Leone Annual Conference Children's Ministries, and the institution we co-founded, the Child Reintegration Centre in Bo, Sierra Leone. As of July 2018, the residential program of the Child Reintegration Centre (formerly Child Rescue Centre) was officially ended and children in residential care were reintegrated with their families, following careful preparation for both caregivers and children.
Moving forward, the CRC's focus continues to be the support and encouragement of extremely vulnerable families, as well as locating families for unsupervised children in Sierra Leone. Since 2019, the CRC's work has become globally recognized as a best practice model. and the HCW/CRC partnership as a best practice international partnership model.
The CRC and HCW continue to be in the forefront of the international movement to move children out of institutional care, as UNICEF and other child-focused organizations across the globe recognize that caring families are far better at raising emotionally and mentally healthy children than institutions.
CRC and HCW now partner with other child welfare organizations and child protection agencies to exchange best practices, share workshop opportunities and collaborate on child welfare cases in its role in the 1MH Accelerator Partnerships, a global initiative to end the unnecessary institutionalization of children. CRC has a specially devoted department to send teams of social workers to educate and support the work of other institutions across the continent of Africa moving to models of care that will support and strengthen families and instill resilience in children. In 2022, CRC leadership traveled to Liberia, and Nigeria to present before faith based and secular leaders on the impact and possibility of change. In 2023, they presented the theory of change and their role as skilled professionals in implementation of the change model before all of the UMC African Bishops. Five Bishops expressed continued interest in having CRC travel to their country to provide instruction to the institutions in their conference.
HCW and CRC teamed up with a new program partner, Child and Family Permanency Services in Wellington, Freetown, Sierra Leone to promote a national policy change to promote alternatives to institutionalization of orphans and vulnerable children and family-based care models.
HCW supports the work of CRC with a dedicated donor initiative, Family Empowerment Advocacy. - FEA
HCW supports the work of CFPS with a similar dedicated donor initiative, Family Empowerment Advocacy Program - FEAP - CFPS Family Empowerment and Advocacy Program
Learn more about the process of change and the movement to end the institutionalization of children.
So why Family Advocacy instead of Family Sponsorship?
We know that child sponsorship programs can be a life-changing force for children who would otherwise be unable to access education or medical care. However, even the best child sponsorship programs raise some ethical questions around promoting an ethos of donor guardianship over a child, and positioning a child as a “money engine” within the family. It also leads to a greater focus on that child (by both donor and in some respects, the CRC), when best practice in social work focuses on the entire family as the unit of care.
Our former SAC program was one of the best child sponsorship programs in the world, providing crucial financial and material support that helped children to attend school, receive education and medical treatment and assist vulnerable families in their struggle to survive. It connected supporters with people in need of support in a way that felt personal and genuine to both, but protected the well-being of children with specific safety protocols. But, as the CRC became better at supporting more and more children and families, the SAC support program’s traditional “orphanage culture” approach didn’t go far enough in sharing the type of parent strengthening and family capacity building work that had become the core of the CRC programs.
We think that shifting the focus of our communications to reflect the key social work activities that have made the CRC a model program and sharing those stories will illuminate the real impact and change on families who are learning to become stronger and more resilient. Do not worry that the children CRC serves are getting less. The CRC will use your donations exactly as they have in the past, to ensure that children are cared for in the best way possible. HCW donors will still provide funds that contribute to services that are provided to children for things like school fees and medical care, but even more importantly, we want you to be able to recognize how these funds are crucial to providing families with targeted social work and family strengthening curriculum and the skills that enable families to enjoy the dignity of independence and the ability to help others reach that same independence. Becoming an advocate for strengthening the capacity of families and expecting that they will graduate from the program and parents become the family’s reliable and independent caregiver allows us to shift to a partnership model that empowers a family’s "capacity to use outside resources while reinforcing the qualities of autonomy, responsibility, and resourcefulness" (Fikkert and Mask). We are following the science, and the Bible, in ensuring parents can provide for their children as a sign of their faith in God’s plan. 1 Timothy 5:8
How are things changing?
The social work of the CRC has increasingly focused on the family as the unit of care, and is now putting into place mechanisms to work with families to set graduation goals, chart their progress toward independence, and help them to get there. They’re seting expectations with caregivers in the CRC programs that they’ll be given the tools and capacity to become independent within approximately 5 years.
The work that is ongoing in strengthening and empowering families and communities in villages is the next step in the growth of this work.
We know that child sponsorship programs can be a life-changing force for children who would otherwise be unable to access education or medical care. However, even the best child sponsorship programs raise some ethical questions around promoting an ethos of donor guardianship over a child, and positioning a child as a “money engine” within the family. It also leads to a greater focus on that child (by both donor and in some respects, the CRC), when best practice in social work focuses on the entire family as the unit of care.
Our former SAC program was one of the best child sponsorship programs in the world, providing crucial financial and material support that helped children to attend school, receive education and medical treatment and assist vulnerable families in their struggle to survive. It connected supporters with people in need of support in a way that felt personal and genuine to both, but protected the well-being of children with specific safety protocols. But, as the CRC became better at supporting more and more children and families, the SAC support program’s traditional “orphanage culture” approach didn’t go far enough in sharing the type of parent strengthening and family capacity building work that had become the core of the CRC programs.
We think that shifting the focus of our communications to reflect the key social work activities that have made the CRC a model program and sharing those stories will illuminate the real impact and change on families who are learning to become stronger and more resilient. Do not worry that the children CRC serves are getting less. The CRC will use your donations exactly as they have in the past, to ensure that children are cared for in the best way possible. HCW donors will still provide funds that contribute to services that are provided to children for things like school fees and medical care, but even more importantly, we want you to be able to recognize how these funds are crucial to providing families with targeted social work and family strengthening curriculum and the skills that enable families to enjoy the dignity of independence and the ability to help others reach that same independence. Becoming an advocate for strengthening the capacity of families and expecting that they will graduate from the program and parents become the family’s reliable and independent caregiver allows us to shift to a partnership model that empowers a family’s "capacity to use outside resources while reinforcing the qualities of autonomy, responsibility, and resourcefulness" (Fikkert and Mask). We are following the science, and the Bible, in ensuring parents can provide for their children as a sign of their faith in God’s plan. 1 Timothy 5:8
How are things changing?
The social work of the CRC has increasingly focused on the family as the unit of care, and is now putting into place mechanisms to work with families to set graduation goals, chart their progress toward independence, and help them to get there. They’re seting expectations with caregivers in the CRC programs that they’ll be given the tools and capacity to become independent within approximately 5 years.
The work that is ongoing in strengthening and empowering families and communities in villages is the next step in the growth of this work.
