Following their Footsteps

Together with the NGO partners Solidarity Now, Merimna, CIVIS PLUS and Babel, Faros expanded a project with a holistic approach to identification, protection and the prevention of absconding for unaccompanied and separated children and youth in Athens, where many of them are  stranded.

Through extensive street work, the project strengthened the identification process of unaccompanied and separated children and youth in the street of Athens to then ensure the provision of an alternative to detention or street-life after their identification. Unaccompanied and separated children and youth are accommodated in a transit centre with the capacity for 20 children. Accompanying them in their transition to permanent shelter, Faros ensured with its partners that the children and youth have the opportunity to attend Greek language courses and other social activities that facilitate their integration into the host society and give them structure and stability on a daily basis.

In order to strengthen the capacities of their own and other care-giving staff, professionals were trained in grief counselling and supervised in groups to ensure good quality care that also takes into consideration the particularly encumbering situation for the professionals themselves.

Based on the experience of the organisations involved and additional research, Faros  further identified and learned more about the reasons and the prevention of absconding of children and youth in care; an issue of high concern in Greece and other EU Member States. A policy brief addressed the issue on a political level, accompanied by awareness raising activities targeting practitioners to allow them to implement the identified measures to reduce the phenomenon of absconding.