The Child Reintegration Centre (CRC) utilizes a programmatic structure to fulfill the organization’s mission and vision. The key components of CRC include
- Transition Coaching and Mentoring to educate orphanage directors, and community leaders in order to transform the child welfare system in Sierra Leone,
- Case Management to oversee family strengthening plans, work with struggling families, monitor progress and refer to strengthening and empowerment services,
- Family Empowerment services such as parenting and family management skills workshops, child-parent bonding education, basic services for economic stabilization, micro-economics and family finance education, micro-loans for family enterprises, access to health services, community connection and relationship building for long-term resilience,
- Education support for scholarships and school supplies, as well as tutoring support for exams, and Promise Scholarship opportunities for post-secondary education,
- Family Empowerment Advocacy (FEA) to educate donors and recruit more advocates to support the work.
Transition Coaching and Mentoring (TCM)
The CRC lends its expertise by helping institutions/organizations achieve sustainable transformation to family care programs through child reintegration, family reunification, and training staff to work with family support systems rather than orphanage residential models. This is accomplished using the Transition Coaching and Mentoring framework. As Sierra Leone adopts a less tolerant policy toward long-term institutional care, the expertise of CRC’s TCM department will offer crucial services to ensure smooth transitions.
Family Empowerment Advocacy (FEA)
The primary function of Family Empowerment Advocacy is to maintain relationships between the CRC and funding partners. This is achieved through story-telling and connections. Advocates share words of encouragement with families, giving encouragement by keeping them in their prayers and learning about their challenges and successes. The efforts of FEA ensure that financial support for the important work of the CRC continues. The FEA employs data, pictures, storytelling and updates from families to help understand the impact of support. These are chosen from information collected by case managers during their visits and shared with Helping Children Worldwide (HCW) to distribute to advocates identified with a particular case manager’s caseload. child protection and family privacy is respected in all FEA information shared with donors. Advocates also support special appeals for an end of the year Christmas party, extraordinary health services such as surgeries requiring international travel, CRC’s work in the rural communities, Promise Scholarship, and Micro-loan programs.
We also raise funds locally within Sierra Leone, encouraging advocacy by inviting others across the country to support families with their finances.
Education
Educational support is given to all families in the CRC, with levels of support based on the Family Status Index (FSI). CRC’s education department functions as a liaison between the organization and the schools that families attend. This is accomplished through school visits, tutorials, exam preparation, and social activities, etc. Promise Scholarship opportunities are provided to well-deserving students whose family would not be able to afford post-secondary tuition. Consistent with the vision of the UMC Annual Conference for the future leaders of Sierra Leone, the CRC has provided scholarships to young people enrolled for services since its inception.
The Teachers’ Learning Collaborative (TLC) is rooted in partnership with teachers from the United States (US), who over several years of service through short term mission trips with the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM), traveled to the CRC. While at the CRC, they taught children basic reading, writing and math skills for two weeks each summer. After the CRC’s transition to family-based care, the TLC also adapted to change by connecting US and Sierra Leonean teachers for the creation of a unique teacher training curriculum. Local teachers crafted training modules and provided response to the US-based curriculum in order to discover a proper fit for the Sierra Leonean context. Additionally, Sierra Leonean master teachers that worked hand-in-hand with the American teachers, went on to train 50 of their colleagues on the new curriculum in July 2024.
Case Management
The department is the root of CRC’s services to families and community. Assessing family status and devising care plans for their long term success, case managers regularly visit families in their homes (these visits include announced and unannounced visits) to gather first hand information about families and observe conditions, make follow-up phone calls and visit children at home and in school settings. The information is processed into data to assess family needs and progress over time. Case managers are responsible for presenting care needs to the approving body, and make referrals for additional services, adjust care plans and determine family readiness to be released from further support.