This report was developed as part of a mapping study aimed at analysing the situation of alternative care and family support in the Baltic Sea Region, assessing the achievements since the 2005 Ministerial Forum and identifying relevant opportunities and challenges for the future.

This report provides an overview of the two-day expert meeting on alternative care and family support in the Baltic Sea Region that took place in Tallinn, Estonia in May 2015.

This background paper was developed as part of a regional study which gathered relevant data and information on family support and alternative care in the eleven Member States of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS).

Government representatives, experts and professionals from the Baltic Sea Region including Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, the Russian Federation, Sweden and wider Europe gathered at a two-day expert meeting in Tallinn, Estonia and, together, endorsed a set of recommendations and action plan on alternative care and family support on 6 May 2015.

This paper, presented at the XVI April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development in Moscow on 8 April 2015, outlines a research project analyzing ongoing foster care reform in Russia in the context of the country’s new family policies.

Andrea Mazzarino, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, visited Russian orphanages as part of a human rights investigation into the conditions and potential abuses in the orphanage system, especially for children with disabilities.

Three former orphans with severe disabilities attempt to make the grueling ascent to Africa’s highest peak to help Russian orphanages. Their Journey is documented in a new RT documentary.

Près de 30 pour cent de tous les enfants en situation de handicap en Russie vivent dans des orphelinats de l'État où ils sont parfois en proie à la violence et la négligence, a déclaré Human Rights Watch dans un rapport publié aujourd'hui. La Russie devrait mettre fin au mauvais traitement des enfants en situation de handicap dans les services de l'État et faire une priorité du soutien fourni pour que les enfants handicapés vivent avec leurs familles ou dans d'autres environnements familiaux, plutôt que dans des institutions.

This paper presents the findings of a survey of Russian care leavers. The emphasis is on care leavers' experiences of the Russian institutional care system, and the issues that impacted on their postcare transition to adulthood.

Infant Mental Health Journal has published an important Special Issue on Global Research, Practice, and Policy Issues in the Care of Infants and Young Children at Risk. In this article, behavior problems were studied in fifty 5- to 8-year-old children transferred from a socioemotionally depriving Russian institution to domestic families.