In preparing to host our concluding conference in Brussels, our ten-partner consortium of the Children rough sleepers project financed by the EU's Daphne programme is currently wrapping up its presentation of a study into the rising number of these minors Europe-wide. Upon commencing the research two years ago, our initial suspicions were soon confirmed that despite similarities among our national contexts, no one country emerges as a carbon copy of another in contributing to some uniform panoramic overview of today's children rough sleepers, or CRS.
Our first challenge in identifying the target population was to determine which category of minors qualify as CRS and whether an individual who sleeps rough is necessarily the same as one whom we have hitherto termed a 'street child'. Predictably, a rally of questions ensued, such as what exactly is 'sleeping rough' and how permanent, or changeable, is this condition among minors in Europe? Does it simply imply youngsters wandering about urban centres by day and sleeping in city parks at night, or does it point instead to yet greater complexity, including behavioural patterns which involve children developing strategies to 'stay over' at friends as the opportunity arises?
"On occasion it became clear to us that over-hastily delimiting the confines of this social category can frankly prove unhelpful"
Perhaps, more importantly, for the runaways from home, what series of difficulties within the domestic environment are they fleeing? Given the present economic crisis and in view of cuts to our social services budgets, within which parameters should we consider intervening and what forms of prevention could best serve CRS in the long term? In one-to-one interviews among sample groups, we examined cases in which children had been evicted from home by their families. We also looked at annually-released figures of minors reported missing, approximating as to how many may have become CRS. Moreover, owing to the ongoing traffic of migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere, we explored how such demographic patterns influence the current increase in CRS numbers.
On occasion it became clear to us that over-hastily delimiting the confines of this social category can frankly prove unhelpful. For example, in processing the documents of young migrants in Catalonia and in attempting to best identify appropriate protection services, problems connected with determining their age have frequently emerged. Similarly, the lack of a programme of sustained support towards their social integration has led some to propose an added category, namely that of 'old minors', when referring to migrants over 18 whose precarious social condition makes them easy prey to operating drug and prostitution rings.
In measuring the scope of the phenomenon, another priority of our research team has been to publish findings on the extent to which sleeping rough renders the child the target of theft or violence (whether as victim or perpetrator), of being 'recruited' for prostitution, or of being sexually exploited by predatory adults. Furthermore, upon examining the configuration of existing policies and public services catering to this target population and after 'mapping' and 'gapping' any efficacy -or lack thereof- in these camps, we shall be making our recommendations for addressing those areas we deem to be most urgent.
In seeking to meaningfully address the hardships of minors who have run away from institutionalised child protection, we have gone on to focus upon how we can most reliably identify the inadequacies within protection centres which trigger a decision on the part of the child to opt for this extreme 'alternative'. This has raised a series of reflections which have tended to favour a complete overhaul of such models of institutionalised protection in order to pave the way for concrete, longer-term solutions which encompass more forward-looking projects. On this score we were encouraged by an experiment of 'social parenting' in the Netherlands, in which adult citizens commit themselves over time to flanking young people on an individual basis through various key stages of their day-to-day lives. As our Leiden partner has observed, this development marks a net departure from the 'one size fits all' logic of prevention by suggesting instead that we might attain to a more ambitious outcome by privileging a 'one size fits one' approach.
It also challenges us to reflect upon how prepared social workers and other key players in child protection are. Are their professional 'tool kits' and emotional literacy skills adequately primed to accompany teenagers along the path to self-esteem and independence - a task with no clear-cut job description which can demand keen insight and titanic perseverance?
At the upcoming conference in Brussels our consortium will present its findings and recommendations. The event concludes a long list of related meetings, workshops, round table debates and national conferences over these past two years, as well as public and private interviews.