At the beginning of the first reports in 2020 about a ‘novel coronavirus’ in Austria, nobody had any idea of the devastating consequences of the resulting pandemic, which spread around the globe, caused several million deaths and many more infections, and not only brought the healthcare system to the brink of collapse, but also led to upheavals for society as a whole. Children and young people were particularly affected, spending several years of their lives between quarantine regulations and social distancing, school closures and homeschooling and stranded in online worlds and social media.

The EU-CERV co-funded CARES project ‘Child-centered and Accessible crisis-Response for an Effective protection System’ focused in particular on the impact of the pandemic on child protection systems, i.e. on child and youth social services to support young people and their families in crisis situations. The project was carried out simultaneously in Austria by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights (LBI-GMR), Croatia (partner: Hrabri phone helpline) and Belgium (overall project management: Defence for Children International/Belgium). This also included workshops and peer interviews with a total of 27 children and adolescents in Austria, an extensive nation-wide online survey with 88 responses from professionals, next to adult interviews and a focus group discussion.

The project revealed challenges for effective child protection in times of national crises  at a substantive level, such as increasingly complex burdens in families, insufficient feedback and participation opportunities for children, increasing psychological burdens impact of digitalization/online activities/social media, inadequate services for certain groups of children such as children with disabilities, care leavers or children with refugee background. On the other hand, challenges were also identified at a structural level, such as insufficient consideration of expertise in child protection and children’s rights in crisis teams at federal and state level, lack of capacity/staff in social work with children or inadequate cooperation between child protection structures and schools.

As part of a series of workshops in July 2024, the project team, together with two youth ambassadors for children’s rights and SDGs from Caritas International Assistance, shared important findings from the project in an exchange of experiences with professionals (SOS Children’s Villages Austria, Child and Youth Ombudsoffices for Styria and Vienna).

Important project results are available here:

• CARES country report Austria: Effects of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent crises – findings for crisis-proof child protection systems, 2024
• Poster series designed by young people themselves on the right to participation
• Brochure with quotes from children and young people from the project workshops in the partner countries
• Training manual based on the exchange workshops from July 2024