An Orphanage That Doesn't Seem Like An Orphanage

There are thousands of children caught in the midst of the migrant crisis, and many of them end up without their parents or with a relative. To avoid placing migrant children in facilities that would be unable to give them specialized care, people are stepping up to serve as foster parents for the time being. The foster parents support the children's emotional well being and sense of self, and now foster aunts—forming a relationship without taking over care—are also emerging. These initiatives help ease the process of starting over in a new place, especially for children.

In some rural parts of Guatemala, "more than half the girls...marry before the age of 18." While a coalition of organizations was able to lobby lawmakers, and raise the legal marriage age to 18, real changes happened at the community level when mentors engaged with girls.

Dr. Kai Smith runs GRAAFICS, Gang Diversion, Reentry And Absent Fathers Intervention Centers, a program he founded to give young men and women an outlet to avoid criminal behavior. The program includes training courses in behavior modification and focuses especially on early prevention of violent behaviors in children through meaningful mentorship.

On average, black students in public schools receive fewer resources giving them a late start. A mostly black university in New Orleans has increased overall achievement by developing students’ shared responsibility for one another’s success.

Support and counseling from trusted volunteers empowers young women to stay in school and out of child marriage. In Nepal, the Sisters for Sisters program was the result of a governmental effort to reduce child marriages. Volunteers, many of whom were child brides themselves, help fight stigma and cultural pressures by leading discussions with young women on topics like sexual health and life choices.

Lacking sufficient counseling resources, schools are training students to fill the gap. The approach is not intended as a comprehensive solution, but as a way to help more students get connected with basic services.

Students at East High School in Salt Lake City took matters into their own hands when they were confronted with the realities of segregation and separatist attitudes at their school. After 43 students had some hard conversations about privilege, cliques, and inequity, they greatly improved representation in the student governing body and started to break down the social (segregated) barriers of cliques in the lunchroom. Students and teachers still consider a lot of work to be done but can also testify to how much the experience has changed their perspective on things.

In order to address child abuse and neglect community members got together to form: R.O.C.K Mat Su, a collaborative organization composed of several organizations that has “teamed up with government agencies, schools and judges to develop a comprehensive solution.” So far, they have been able to train 10 schools to become trauma informed schools, trained over 2,000 people in the community, and created an alternative judicial court for children that prioritizes family reunification.

Trauma-informed care and social support systems encourage resilience in the face of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). With evidence of strong links between childhood trauma and long-term health, behavioral, and even social issues in adulthood, programs like the Best Beginnings Children’s Partnership of the Flathead Reservation and Lake County in Montana and the BARR (Building Assets, Reducing Risks) curriculum promote healing and resilient thinking. Creating positive, supportive environments also reduces the likelihood of passing down inter-generational trauma.

In Pennsylvania, “500 men and about 10 women juvenile lifers who have been locked away for decades” will be released due to a recent Supreme Court decision that said it was unconstitutional for judges to strike automatic life-without-parole sentence for juveniles. Unfortunately, recidivism rates show that “ 60 percent of people are locked up again within three years of being released.” However, pairing a former prisoner with a mentor is an old school solution that has been proven to be successful. Studies show “participants who had mentors were twice as likely to find jobs and 39 percent less likely to reci