By Kimberly Quinley | Executive Director
This report will examine one of Step Ahead’s strategic pillars: COLLABORATION.
At Step Ahead, we believe that collaboration and partnership are essential for realizing our vision. We intentionally bring people together in a structured manner to achieve social change through collective impact initiatives.
One example is a Thai government pilot project in which Step Ahead is involved. This pilot project unites three NGOs (Step Ahead, Care for Children, Holt-Sahathai) and the Thai Department of Children and Youth to transition children from a government orphanage to family-based solutions. The main aim of this project is to create mechanisms that ensure children are raised in nurturing family settings. Our approach focuses on two key areas: reducing the number of children in child welfare homes and enhancing gatekeeping measures to prevent vulnerable children from being placed in orphanages.
The orphanage, Baan Khantong, has 137 children aged one month to six years. We have been working closely with the orphanage to coach staff in case management. The coaching began yielding results in the third quarter. All children in the target group now have clearer Individual Development Plans (IDPs) and permanency plans, including reunification, adoption, or ongoing case management with families, relatives, or temporary family-based care through foster care.
Recognizing the importance of community-level awareness for effective gatekeeping, four one-day workshops were conducted in December 2024, engaging 397 government officers from 224 local administrative organizations in Khon Kaen.
The workshops aimed to:
• Increase understanding of the Child Protection Act 2003,
• Strengthen networks among child welfare stakeholders, and
• Encourage community participation in assessing, monitoring, and reporting violence against children.
Feedback from these workshops indicated a significant shift in awareness, highlighting the detrimental impact of institutionalizing children and underscoring the importance of prioritizing family-based care solutions within the community whenever possible.
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