Global Family Care Network

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Global Family Care Network is a non-profit organization that provides services to victims of commercial sexual exploitation, implements alternative care programs for children who have lost biological support, and works with local community-based organizations. Headquartered in California, Global Family operates programs in the United States, Canada, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and El Salvador.

History

Global Family was founded in 2007. Its first programs were implemented in India and consisted of working through local community organizations to recruit and train volunteer caregivers to provide long-term support for minors. Global Family recruits volunteer caregivers and do not change the make-up of a family once it has been created. Today, Global Family India continues to run a family care program as well as a shelter for victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation in Delhi.

The organization started projects to address human trafficking in Nepal. The first programs to be launched in Nepal were preventative and consisted of awareness campaigns in rural villages that were identified as hot-spots for human trafficking. Next, Global Family started community-strengthening and girls empowerment clubs. Clubs remain a prominent feature of Global Family's prevention approaches around the world. Global Family Nepal now has a group home for at-risk children and victims of trafficking, a family care program, as well as a mentorship program that matches children with mentors from their community.

Global Family continued working in Asia by starting prevention projects in Myanmar in 2012, and has since expanded to the United States and Canada in 2015, El Salvador in 2016, and Thailand and Sri Lanka in 2017. There are currently Global Family prevention programs in each of these countries as well as a group home for minor victims of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) in Bakersfield, CA.

Mission and Vision

Global Family's mission is to preserve the family and protect at risk children with the assistance of local community organizations, volunteer caregivers, and donors, and vision is to help as many children as possible who are victims of poverty, exploitation, and abuse by modeling and sharing principled methods that represent the best possible outcome.

Programs

Bhitri Sundarta

Bhitri Sundarta (meaning 'inner beauty' in Nepali) is a 44-lesson curriculum that is used to teach girls in Nepal between the ages of eight and fifteen about trafficking and sexual abuse. The curriculum is being used in seven countries (United States, Canada, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Nepal). A North American version of the curriculum was published for club leaders in the United States and Canada that conforms to a normal school calendar year.

Jal Vihar Education Program

Parent-teacher meetings, seminars and special meetings are conducted to bring awareness around literacy, health hygiene, and financial management. Local leaders send children to school, gather people for public meetings, supply food, and coordinate other community works.

Sangam Vihar Shelter

The Sangam Vihar shelter provides services for female victims of trafficking and systematic abuse who are referred by the police in South Delhi. Global Family conducts background checks and investigations and advocates upon victim's behalf in the court. Girls are either returned to their families or placed in long-term family care. From July 2011 to 2017, 497 children were provided medical help, counseling, non-formal education, legal help, prevention training and protection. Global Family has helped the government trace traffickers who were sent to prison. Most of the girls receive compensation for child labor and victim’s compensation from the government. An inspection report from the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) notes that "[The shelter] is maintained like one’s own home to the children" (CWC Chairperson) and "The children look happy and neat. Records are well maintained" (Health Officer).

Daughter Project Girls Home

The Daughter Project Girls Home (DPGH) is a group home serving commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC) in and around Kern County. The DPGH is a 24/7 live-in facility which provides intervention and treatment services to girls ranging between 12-17 years old that have been identified as CSEC. The DPGH provides CSEC-informed trauma care and wraparound services to its youth residents, including physical and mental health assessments, screenings, and access to treatment, nutrition, creative arts, yoga, recreation, academic tutoring, girls’ empowerment programs, and CSEC-specific programs.

Outcomes

Achievements

Global Family has 304 team members and has reported the following outcomes since 2007:

• 166,447 participating in prevention clubs
• 1,301 victims of trafficking and exploitation cared for in Global Family shelters
• 1,582 children returned to their families

In India, 81 new children came to the Sangam Vihar shelter in 2017, and 78 children were restored with their families. In Nepal, 610 girls use the Bhitri Sundarta curriculum and 39 children have been intercepted from abuse, exploitation, and trafficking. In Myanmar, over 12,200 people received awareness education about human trafficking and child abuse, and 49 children were intercepted who were missing or victims of trafficking and forced labor. In the United States, 22 girls have been provided with short-term residential therapeutic care.

Research

Global Family’s approaches are consistent with published and peer-reviewed studies. This includes 1) identification of victims (sensitization and training of personnel; multidisciplinary task forces; youth empowerment groups), 2) rescue (screening and physical assessments; information around available services; drop-in and short-term shelters), 3) rehabilitation (medical, legal, social, and psychotherapeutic services; partnerships between child welfare agencies and other NGOs; combined trainings from multiple sectors; incorporation of family and friends in recovery; home-based support), and 4) reintegration (vocational and skills training; capacity building; community-based services; family identification and assessment; follow-up).

Evaluations

The Child Welfare Council in Delhi, India, and the Social Welfare Council in Kathmandu, Nepal (since 2011) have both evaluated Global Family’s programs and acknowledge that Global Family is a model that other organizations working to provide immediate, short-term, and restorative services to victims of human trafficking and commercial exploitation should look towards as an example of how to operate their own programs, and have certified Global Family to approve other group homes and shelters. The group home and short-term residential therapeutic program (STRTP) in Bakersfield, CA, is evaluated and licensed by Community Care Licensing (CCL), the County of Kern Department of Human Services, and the State of California (since 2016). Specific programs have been evaluated, including a program and stakeholder evaluation of the Daughter Project in Kern County and qualitative research on Global Family shelters and programs in India and Nepal.

Initiatives

Direct Good

Direct Good is a crowdfunding platform that increases transparency and accountability between donors and community-based, locally-imagined projects around the world. Project categories include community strengthening, human trafficking, and family care.

PRESEHT

PRESEHT (Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Human Trafficking) is a training initiative that Global Family USA founded in 2017 to educate mandated reporters, professionals, and youth about how to identify and intervene in human trafficking. Trainings are provided for professionals and agencies in foster care, education, business, law enforcement, healthcare, transportation, hospitality, ​and religious organizations both in-person and online.

Financials

80% of Global Family's funds are sent directly to its operating programs. Executive salaries are set within 25% of the median household income respectively. Global Family is rated as a Platinum organization on Guidestar in the areas of children's rights, low-cost temporary housing (including youth hostels), international development, and relief services.

References

This article "Global Family Care Network" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Global Family Care Network. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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