On the occasion of World Children's Day 2022, IOM Belgium & Luxembourg and IOM Regional office for the EEA, the EU and NATO organized a webinar in the framework of the U-CARE - Unaccompanied Children in Alternative Residence project, an EU-funded project contributing to the development and improvement of alternative non-institutionalized care systems for Unaccompanied Migrant Children (UMC) in Belgium, Germany and Greece.

This webinar aimed at fostering the exchange of knowledge and good practices in alternative care systems for UMC. Following consultations with (aged-out) UMC, social workers and child protection experts, the U-CARE tools were developed to strengthen existing alternative care structures, to better address the needs of young refugees and the challenges they face.

The tools developed include a culture-sensitive training manual on breaking taboos and tackling racism when caring for UMC, family-based care tool with guidelines on how to recruit volunteers with a migration background to care for UMC, alternative care prototypes with 3 alternative care “models” to support UMC transitioning to adulthood, country of origin leaflets, etc.

The U-CARE project management team presented the highlights and lessons learned of the project and gave an overview of the tools developed under the project.