A Multi-Stage Participatory Workshop Method for Engaging Children and Young People in Cross-Cultural Research on Preventing Family Separation

Around the world children continue to be separated from parents and placed in alternative care. There is an understanding that for thousands of children, this separation is unnecessary. Our research sought evidence on the reasons for such separation and how the placement of children in formal alternative care might be prevented in countries presenting differing contexts. In particular, steps were taken to address a perceived gap in research on this topic: the participation of children and young people. This article, recognising how such participation is vital in gaining their perspectives on issues affecting them, demonstrates how their involvement in the design of research questions and tools, contributed to methodological validity and transferability of the methodology across differing socio-economic and cultural settings. It goes on to affirm how the use of these research tools that allowed for playful and creative modes of expression, despite the topic being a serious one, was pivotal in gathering rich empirical evidence with children and care-experienced young people in 54 workshops across eight countries. Their contribution proved critical to informing recommendations aimed at improving multi-sectoral policies and services at a country and international level to help prevent child-parents separation and placement in alternative care.