The Copenhagen house that's probably the best children's home in the world

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.

Youth Villages, a nonprofit started in Tennessee over 30 years ago has helped improve the lives of children who face difficulties in their homes while saving money on the child welfare system. Instead of immediately removing children from their problematic homes, Youth Villages works on building relationships with the parents and providing in-home support services to both the parents and the children to ensure that they have a successful future. Additionally, the organization supports foster kids who age out of the system, and has managed to place many children back with their families securely.

In Oregon, there’s about 8,000 children in the Foster Care System. “Oregon takes children away from their homes at a rate two times higher than the national average.” Youth Villages is hoping their intervention programs will help bring down that rate. In other states it’s done just that. One of their programs, pairs children at risk of being removed from their family with counselors. The counselors visit the families 2 to 3 times a week. “It literally did save our adoption.” Youth Villages serves more than 250 families a year across various states.

Casa Viva is an organization in Latin America that prioritizes family reunification over adoption. They have placed about 640 children with foster families, “60 percent of those went back to their biological family or another relative. About 35 percent were adopted.” In contrast to foster homes, orphanages have become thriving business which recruit western volunteers and charge them large fees. Casa Viva opposes this model because most kids have parents who are alive, but can’t afford to raise them.

In Grand Junction, Colorado, Foster Alumni Mentors is working to connect young adults in or leaving the foster care system with others who have gone through the same person, giving them a mentor to help them with applying and paying for college, finding jobs, and more. The program create 19 mentorship relationships during its first year of existence and the personal connections manifest in more ways than one.

Investing in home-visit programs provides crucial support to low income, first time mothers and reduces overall government healthcare costs. The Nurse-Family Partnership, in coordination with the US Department of Health and Human Services, provides mothers with support from the time of pregnancy and continuing on for two years after birth. Nurses focus not only the health of the child, but also help parents build healthy habits. The benefits extend beyond childhood health, to areas such as reduction in crime.

Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services arose from the need to improve the outcomes of drug addicted parents and their children, such as increasing reunification statistics. STARS employs case workers who have previously been drug addicted, and can provide immediate support and services such as meeting with the participant, accessing treatment options, and drug screening.

The Homeless World Cup is the premier soccer tournament for homeless players. Programs around the world use soccer as a means of building a sense of community, sublimating negative energies, and encouraging personal growth.

New Mexico's new universal child care program includes a new provision that exempts grandparents with legal custody or kinship guardianship from work and school requirements, making them eligible for free child care. In the first three weeks since the program launched, 61 new grandparent-headed households have applied and been approved for free child care assistance.

In 2007, Moldova launched a National Strategy to reduce the number of children living in orphanages by providing more support to disadvantaged families, creating more inclusive education programs, and expanding the country’s foster care capacity. As of now, only about 700 children remain in orphanages.