COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE GOALS
Phase 1
- Establish a CoP to strengthen and promote functional collaboration between the health, welfare and education sectors serving children and families for improved child well-being.
- Work together to develop and test a digital tool to assess and track child well-being.
- Based on assessment of the digital too to design, implement and evaluate the appropriate cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary local level solutions to combine ‘cash transfers and care’ services and learning opportunities for children in disadvantaged communities.
- Produce knowledge about the practice of inter-sectoral collaboration for better outcomes for children.
- Make recommendations to government and non-governmental partners about the potential of integrated social systems strengthening solutions for better social outcomes for children and families.
Phase 2
- To refine the CoP model and assess viability in a rural context
- To track child well-being
- Based on the above (2), to design, implement and evaluate short-term solution focused
- To work together to develop a guide for social system strengthening to improve child well- being in the school-family-community context.
- To support LLCoPs to support and enhance child well-
- To contribute to scientific engagement, advocacy and community education on systems strengthening for child well-being.
COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE OBJECTIVES
Phase 1
- Design, test and implement the Child Well-being Tracking Tool (CWTT)
- Develop generic overarching solutions and action plans to step up child well-being outcomes across the social sectors.
- Develop, implement and assess the effectiveness of a community-based mathematics and reading development model that includes children and parents.
- Conduct a baseline assessment study on the mental health of children in their foundation years of schooling and develop assessment guidelines.
- Determine the factors that contribute to the risk of mental health problems in children and identify factors that contribute to building resilience.
- Conduct a health and nutrition assessment of the children; devise appropriate primary health care solutions and assess the effectiveness of such solutions.
- Review, adapt, implement and evaluate a community-based child and family strengthening intervention.
- Assess the potential of cash transfers and an integrated family intervention on child well-being outcomes.
- Assess the effectiveness of the CoP approach used in this study to strengthen integrated service provision (cash transfers – that is, social grants; care services, health, nutrition,education, welfare and social work services) for better social outcomes for children.
Phase 2
- Use the digital CWTT to conduct a longitudinal assessment of child well-being (wave 3 in Johannesburg)
- Develop an Active Implementation Framework (AIF) to guide cross-sectoral service delivery for children in the foundation years of schooling.
- Develop, implement and assess the effectiveness of short-term solutions and action plans to step up child well-being outcomes across the social sectors.
- Devise an appropriate assessment tool to monitor growth (height and weight for age) including health checks of children aged 5-8 years.
- Develop, implement and assess a strategy to support
- Develop the user-interface aspect of the CWTT digital application and assess effectiveness in supporting LLCoPs.
- To explore how the CoP may be integrated in the District Development Model (DDM).
- Replicate the CoP model in a rural
- Devise and implement scientific engagement, advocacy and community education interventions to ensure that no child and their families are left behind.
- Document good practice learning on the use of digital tools in promoting child well-being outcomes.