Disability Toolkit
The toolkit of resources has been collated to support Family members to better understand children with disabilities, their rights and needs, and the needs and rights of their carers, parents and other family members.
Background
Family for Every Child has several working groups, one of which is the Disability Working Group. The Disability Working Group explores the link between disability and care (including alternative care, prevention of family separation, family strengthening and advocacy) to enhance support for children with disabilities and their families.
During its inception, the Disability Working Group agreed to establish a strong culture of learning and sharing. The group invested a year to learning and understanding disability within different contexts, and covered various topics in their rotational learning sessions, for example:
- Carrying out disability audits with national stakeholders
- Guidance for frontline social workers who are encountering children with disabilities in their work, but who may not have received any training on disability
- How to influence government to provide adequate rehabilitation services to families with children with disabilities
- Early detection of disability and collaborating with health service providers for early intervention
Resources shared among the group members since the groups’ inception formed the basis of this Disability Toolkit. Members’ resources were then complemented by external resources from disability-focused organisations globally.
The toolkit of resources has been collated to support Family members to better understand children with disabilities, their rights and needs, and the needs and rights of their carers, parents and other family members. The Disability Working Group will conduct a learning series on how to use the toolkit to mainstream disability and influence policy change.
Objectives: The Disability Working Group’s vision is for this toolkit is to strengthen the capacity of all Family members to include children with disabilities and their families in their advocacy, service delivery or other work.
Intended audience: Family members who work with children with disabilities, their carers, parents, and other family members.
What is contained in the toolkit: The toolkit consists of resources developed and used by Family members who are involved with the Disability Working Group, complemented by external global resources. Efforts were made to include a range of types of resources to keep the toolkit interesting and engaging, including videos, research, training packages, and practitioner tools.
How to use the toolkit: To use the toolkit, Family members can browse within the below key categories, and sub-categories. The toolkit is not ‘sequential’, so members should feel free to skip to the category or sub-category which is most relevant to their current needs and priorities.