Back in April, I had the privilege of coordinating an interactive workshop – “Accessibility, Inclusion & Child Helplines” – for our network of child helplines.
Child helplines are well-positioned to be an accessible, safe and helpful support mechanism for all children. Our motto is “Every Child Has a Voice: We Believe No Child Should Be Left Unheard“. However, our child helpline members have found that children from minority or particularly vulnerable groups in society are often less likely to contact child helplines.
Children in these groups are often at a higher risk of their rights being violated. Therefore, we need to make especially sure they also have access to child-friendly children’s rights services through child helplines.
Several of our members are already taking concrete steps to address this. For many child helplines however, this has not been possible, due to a lack of financial and human resources, a lack of practical knowledge on how to address the situation, or other obstacles. This workshop was an opportunity to deep-dive into these issues.
Background
This online workshop was led by expert speakers Alisa and Deanna from our Canadian member child helpline, Kids Help Phone. It brought together dedicated professionals from across our network of member child helplines, facilitating the exchange of knowledge and experiences on inclusive practice and explore obstacles and opportunities to increasing accessibility.
Providing exclusive resources such as this workshop is a core component of Child Helpline International’s Learning Strategy. This strategy further enhances and supports the quality of services provided by our individual child helpline members, and also contributes to the network’s overall strength, coherence and positioning by improving the use of existing knowledge and enabling the co-creation of new knowledge. With this structured approach to learning, we aim to strengthen collaboration between our members and create a more interconnected community of child helplines. This ultimately leads to an elevated quality of services enhancing the impact and effectiveness of our entire network.
Highlights
Learning Style
The workshop included several hands-on activities designed to reinforce the concepts discussed.
One notable activity was a series of breakout room discussions to explore which groups of children and young people were most at risk of negative outcomes in various countries, what their contact with child helplines looked like, and the outreach efforts and initiatives being made by child helplines to increase the number of under-served children and young people connecting with their services. These important discussions on accessibility allowed participants to reflect on their own contexts and exchange good practices among one another.
Attendees
In total, we were joined by nearly 30 individuals, representing child helplines from various regions.
Key Takeaways
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It is critical that child helplines spend time thinking about who is not accessing their services. It is only by digging into the possible reasons why they are not making contact that we can truly ensure our services are reaching the most vulnerable young people in our countries. It is imperative that we test ways to reach these young people.
Alisa Simon,
EVP, E-mental Health Transformation and Chief Youth Officer,
Kids Help Phone
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If we want to reach youth from under-served populations, we must include them in the conversations. We need to ask them what the barriers to them reaching out are. Perhaps our brands or materials don’t speak to them? …Perhaps they need more accessible channels? …Or, maybe they simply do not even know about our services?
We must involve them directly in developing the ways to overcome the barriers.
Deanna Dunham,
Director, Indigenous Initiatives and Equity Programs,
Kids Help Phone
Concluding Thoughts
I thoroughly enjoyed being part of this valuable discussion on accessibility.
I am grateful to Alisa and Deanna, our expert speakers, and to all of the dedicated participants who made this training a success.
For any child helpline staff considering this training, you can find the materials on our eLearning platform.
Laura Holliday
Learning Coordinator
