The overall aim of the activities of the Centre for Children in Vulnerable Situations (CCVS) is the promotion of the well-being of children living in vulnerable situations. We hereby focus on children living in countries in the South.
This overall aim is striven for via different specific goals:
First, the development and execution of scientific research, driven by questions and findings coming from concrete practices. Moreover, each study needs to be linked up again with the practitioners’ field, as research needs to support practitioners – and thus indirectly the children and adolescents they are working with. This involves that CCVS pays special attention to the translation of its research findings into concrete recommendations for practice and policies, and to the accessibility of the research results (via, amongst other things, the organisation of conferences with the presentation of study findings in the countries where the studies were executed). Finally, the centre pays special attention in her research activities to supporting the development of local research expertise and capacities in Southern countries, through, amongst others, support of local master and PhD students.
Second, CCVS wants to be an expertise, documentation and training centre regarding psychosocial well-being of children in vulnerable situations in the South. This entails, firstly, the above mentioned aim, in essence building knowledge and competencies through scientific research. Next to this, this aim will be striven for through starting up some own pilot projects in countries in the South. These pilot projects serve following aims: support of further capacity building, realisation of a counselling offer for children and adolescents living in vulnerable situations, and the organisation of diverse sensitization and training initiatives for supporters (out of the formal and informal network) of these children and adolescents.