Hope For Children participates at the 1st Barnahus Forum
Hope For Children' CRC Policy Center participated in the 1st Barnahus Forum held in Stockholm, Sweden, organized by the PROMISE Barnahus Network and the Council of the Baltic Sea States. The forum, titled 'Tell me more about that,' brought together over 170 professionals from various organizations and agencies from 22 countries.
Hope For Children is a founding member of the European network 'PROMISE Barnahus Network' and actively participates in the network's activities aimed at further developing specialization and knowledge exchange for the handling of cases of violence against children and the operation of the 'Children's House'.
HFC's representatives consisted of four members of the staff of Hope For Children working at the 'Children's House' and a member of the special investigation team of the Cyprus Police responsible for investigating allegations of sexual abuse against children.
The forum provided an opportunity to present the substantial work being done at the Cyprus' Barnahus, recognizing it as one of the good practices at the European level. The presentation was delivered by Marios Nicolaou, Senior Social Worker at Hope For Children, focusing, among other things, on the connection between the 'Children's House' and the Court.
The management of the 'Children's House' in Cyprus has been entrusted to Hope For Children by the Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare, with supervision and funding from the Social Welfare Services and the direct involvement and participation of Social Welfare Services, Police, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Education.
Participants in the forum had the opportunity for extensive exchange of information, tools, contacts, ideas, and inspiration that will assist in establishing, operating, and sharing best practices in every 'Barnahus' in Europe.
This was the first physical meeting of network members since its establishment in 2019.
During the forum, various topics were presented and discussed, including:
The role of organizations managing Barnahus in Europe.
Efforts to expand Barnahus.
Children affected by armed conflicts.
Management of cases of online sexual violence.
Children with harmful behaviors.
The importance of medical assessments for each child.
On the second day of the forum, network members had the opportunity to visit the Barnahus (Children's Houses) in Stockholm and Linkoping. It was an excellent opportunity for everyone to continue networking and gain further knowledge and inspiration from these specific models."