Children and young people’s participation in child protection: outcomes of transformative participation in international contexts

This article draws on case studies from Brazil, Denmark, Israel, Norway, and
Nicaragua to analyse the outcomes of transformative participation in child
welfare. Transformative participation occurs when children make
meaningful choices, develop a sense of agency, possess the resources to
exercise agency, and can make a real difference in their lives, their
communities, and child welfare. Caring and inclusive attitudes,
relationships, and practice approaches characterise transformative
participatory professional practices. We demonstrate that transformative
methods can create conditions so children feel recognised and
empowered and empower themselves. They encourage children to
collectively engage in actions to change cultural norms and develop new
child welfare practice approaches and policies. We show how local-level
practitioners in public and nongovernmental child welfare organisations
can play a crucial role in fostering children’s transformative participation.