CHILD WELFARE REFORM

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The Child Welfare Reform Project aims to improve child welfare in Romania through testing and promoting community-based child welfare approaches as sustainable and cost-effective alternatives to institutionalized child care and for re-integrating street children in Bucharest more fully into society. There are 3 components. The Community-Based Child Welfare Services component identifies, finances, monitors, and evaluates sub-projects over a period of 42 months, with the goal of preventing child abandonment and institutionalization, and de-institutionalizing and improving the quality of residential care by alternative community-based services. It provides family counseling and support, educates young parents, provides temporary shelter for young single mothers and their babies, provides day care for children at risk as well as therapeutic care for children with special needs, sets up small group homes that are community-integrated alternative residential care facilities providing short/medium term care, and aids foster care training services. The second component expands an existing center for coordination and information on street children, provides services for them and reduces their number, focusing on night and day shelters, counseling and legal advice, learning and educational facilities, and medical assistance. The third component, supports the Department for Child Protection (DCP) in overseeing project implementation, trains staff, and spreads public awareness.