Intersecting Inequalities in Child Welfare: Cross-Border Partnership for Equity and Social Justice | I-COPE Project

Join us on Friday, 30 January, for a public engagement event focused on intersecting inequalities in child welfare.

This event is designed for practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and care-experienced youth to come together and critically assess current practices and research priorities aimed at tackling child welfare inequalities.

Recent weeks have seen widespread frustration in the Dutch Tweede Kamer over the failing youth protection system, with severe capacity shortages, unmanageable caseloads, long waiting lists, and children and families who are not listened to or even mistreated by care services.

Child welfare inequalities worsen these issues, as marginalized groups (including low-income families, ethnic minoritized, and LGBTQIA+ youth) experience disproportionate interventions and poorer outcomes from biased policies and resource gaps. Open discussion is essential to reveal how systemic failures harm the most vulnerable and to push for change.

To provide a critical space to do so, the program of this event will cover a broad range of topics, including disparities on decision-making in child protection, stigma and marginalization experienced by system-involved youth, inequalities related to gender and sexual identity among adolescents in care, structural harms impacting children and families, and organizational responses to welfare inequality.

The event will offer space for discussion, welcoming participants to engage and reflect collectively. While the sessions will be held in English to facilitate international exchange, especially with colleagues from Germany, we embrace an inclusive language approach and encourage questions in Dutch as well.

This event is free of charge, but registration is required. Please register by January 26 to secure your spot. Spaces are limited.