Retrak Report Evaluating Outcomes

Summary

Retrak’s newly published study, Evaluating Outcomes, has shown that reintegration for street-connected children is a successful intervention and is able to provide children and families with a positive future.

Multidimensional wellbeing assessments of children on the streets, through placement with family and into follow-up, reveal a clear improvement in wellbeing across 12 different wellbeing goals. Family reintegration should be made a first priority and efforts to deinstitutionalise child care increased.

Education and psychosocial wellbeing are shown to be slower to improve and need further exploration to ensure that interventions for street-connected children and national education systems are able to meet these children’s needs and prevent others from turning to the streets.

Analysis of deprivation on the streets for different groups of children also highlighted the vulnerability of children on the streets and the need for early interventions. Outreach work on the streets must target younger children and those who have recently arrived. These children are shown to be more vulnerable on the streets and are more likely to progress successfully into reintegration.

The methods used in this study provide an easy to use method for tracking children’s wellbeing and monitoring the effectiveness of reintegration interventions and should be pursued further.