Two and-a-half years ago, Children’s Future International was introduced to an innovative social work tool, Signs of Safety. The signs of safety tool is a rigorous child protection tool that uses a solution-focused approach and helps social workers and families to have a conversation about the safety of children together.
Incorporating the program to be used with over 60 families, Signs of Safety has helped families become aware of areas of safety concern. As a result, families returned numerous children from illegal labor sites and have been able to better protect them from violence in their homes and communities. Building on a network of community members and extended family members, families are working to reduce incidents of neglect and abandonment of young children.
Additionally, the tool has been used to work with caretakers. We have found caretakers for children formerly living in child-headed households, and we work with champion parents and caretakers who try as hard as they can to keep children protected in chronic difficult situations.
Andrew Turnell, the creator of Signs of Safety, and Pene Turnell became aware of our work through a former Social Work Advisor within the community and decided to visit Battambang and conduct a 3-day-training.
CFI’s implementation of Signs of Safety showed that the program is applicable for the needs of Cambodia.The Signs of Safety has great potential to grow Cambodian child protection and we are excited to be involved in a steering group leading the further implementation of Signs of Safety on a larger scale in Cambodia with partner organizations and communities.
We thank Cathy Smith, Andrew and Pene Turnell and Ross from CCT for our part in this exciting initiative and are looking forward to the next steps!
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