A Toolkit for Reflective Practice in Supporting Community-led Child Protection Processes

Vibrant community action that supports vulnerable children and also supports formal aspects of child protection systems is essential for the achievement of our collective goal of strengthening child protection systems. Together with its companion Guide, A Guide for Supporting Community-Led Child Protection Processes, the Toolkit aims to enable effective, sustainable community-led action that prevents and responds to child protection risks.

This community-led approach is promising because it generates high levels of community ownership, enables children’s leadership, and helps communities to mobilize themselves for internally guided, positive change. Enabling community-led action requires a different skillset than is required for top-down approaches. The tools in this Toolkit begin the process of acquiring the skills needed to enable a community-led approach. It is suggested that users of the Guide and Toolkit go back and forth between the two, acting as optimal foragers in learning about how to interweave the principles and practicalities of community-led approaches.