The Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council (JJWC) together with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and A Child’s Trust is Ours to Nurture (ACTION Inc.) partnered to develop a capacity-building project entitled “Project to Strengthen the Support Systems for Children in Residential Care Facilities and Communities in 11 Regions in the Philippines”.
The project aims to improve the capacity of Residential Care Facilities (RCFs) and Communities in the Philippines and in Japan to respond to the developmental needs of children. Lined-up activities include development of customized life skills toolkit for children in conflict with the law (CICL) and children at risk; capacity building activities for personnel of Bahay Pag-Asa (BPA) and local social welfare and development office (LSWDO) of select local government units (LGUs) in Region III and National Capital Region in implementing life skills activities for CICL and CAR; institutionalization of life skills intervention program for CICL and CAR through policy; creation of additional pool of trainers for houseparenting training in nine regions in Luzon and Visayas; and exporting the social technology developed on life skills to Japan.
“This tripartite partnership has come at the most opportune time as we are forced to rethink better ways to handle and protect CAR and CICLs amidst the COVID-19 pandemic”, said JJWC Executive Director Atty. Tricia Clare A. Oco.
Among the project’s target beneficiaries are social workers, houseparents, children in RCFs, CAR, and CICL. It has started in March 2021 and will be implemented until March 2024 in Regions I, II, III, CAR, IV-A, IV-B, V, VI, VII, VIII, and NCR.
The project had conducted the signing of the Tripartite Memorandum of Agreement last April 7, 2021, and will be launched virtually via the Facebook Pages of JJWC, DSWD, and ACTION Inc. on May 27, 2021.
JJWC is grateful for this partnership and is hopeful that this will build promising and good practices that other countries can apply in their jurisdictions.“We at JJWC wish to express our deepest gratitude to the government of Japan for sharing its resources and for supporting the Philippine government’s efforts to promote juvenile justice and welfare. We are fully committed to the success of this endeavor not just for the benefit of the Filipino children but for our international community”, Atty. Oco emphasized.
