SASUF Sustainability Forum 2024

Introduction and background of the topic:
Similar challenges have been identified in South Africa and Sweden signaling that children in care might not be heard or respected and not recognised for their capabilities to influence social change. Many significant decisions directly affecting their lives are made without their participation. This is a violation of their rights and in particular, the right to participate in matters that concern them. International treaties such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC, 1989), as well as regional and local policy and legislation in Sweden and South Africa stipulate that children should participate in decisions that affect their well-being. These policy directives are important for social workers who are responsible for services to children in alternative care as they are obligated to adhere to these directives. However, there is uncertainty about how social workers understand the concept of child participation, how it is utilised in practice to ensure the best interest of the child principle, how do they adhere to policy and legislative directives and what challenges they may experience in implementation.

Relevance of the topic to the Swedish and South African Context:
Our study analysed and compared the policy and legislation of South Africa and Sweden to understand the directives for child participation and how it influence the daily work with children in alternative care and their opportunities for participation. Continuing our study, this workshop would present the preliminary findings of a World Cafe with social workers working with children in alternative care, held in South Africa in March 2024 and Sweden in May 2024. It would also extend our understanding of child participation with vulnerable children to influence social change through discussions with other interdisciplinary professionals and students within the SASUF network. This would benefit both the Swedish and the South African Context in that there is a moral and legal imperative that children should have opportunities for participation in matters concerning social change.

Aim/Purpose of the workshop:
The workshop's aim is twofold:

To discuss and further our understanding of interdisciplinary professionals' views on implementing child participation to influence social change.
To present our collaborative project to the SASUF audience.

How we plan to develop future collaborations and activities beyond the forum:
The research team, consisting of seven researchers from South Africa and Sweden, have worked together since 2019 and has already conducted workshops in South Africa and online for Swedish and South African social workers, and has published articles in peer-reviewed journals. In March 2024, the team will work together in Pretoria by conducting a World Café for South African social workers. A similar event will take place in Sweden in May 2024. The outcomes of the respective country World Cafés in South Africa and Sweden will contribute a solid base for the team’s future research into how children’s participation in alternative care can be more effectively implemented in both countries. It is essential to begin the process with social workers as they are the gatekeepers to access children. In the next project phase, we will continue by obtaining and including the voices of the children.

The World Café model was created by Juanita Brown and David Isaacs as a method to facilitate meaningful conversations in a more engaging and participatory approach. By using strategies such as an inviting environment, groups at small tables, rotations between tables, making notes at the table to be left for the next group, and harvesting of insights at the end, the World Café model supports creative thinking and problem-solving. The model is easy to use, and leave participants feeling empowered by the diversity of perspectives and the way the model enables them to collectively develop insights.

This workshop will be informed by preliminary findings from two earlier World Cafés with social workers and social work students in Sweden and South Africa respectively – on responses to questions such as: What is child participation and social change? What examples do you have of how children can participate in decision-making? 

In this workshop, we will use the preliminary findings of the two World Cafés with social workers to formulate questions to be discussed in this workshop’s interactive World Café with interdisciplinary academics and students, to help further triangulate the findings.

Keywords: Alternative care; Child Participation; Social work; World Café, Social change