ABOUT US
Child to Child is an international child rights agency that is a pioneer of the children’s participation movement.
The award winning Child to Child concept was first developed in 1978 by our Founders, Dr. David Morley (Institute of Child Health) and Dr. Hugh Hawes (Institute of Education) to commemorate the forthcoming International Year of the Child (1979). The Child to Child Trust (now called Child to Child) was established as an organisation in 1987. Since then, we have delivered a range of services to organisations all around the world to promote children’s participation and child-led approaches.
Child to Child trains leading global agencies in a number of practical approaches that enable children to play a meaningful role in their own lives and to promote the health, education and wellbeing of themselves and their communities.
An older child helps a younger child in her community
Our principles
Child to Child:
- respects children’s views and voices to enable them to grow into responsible adults.
- advocates for children’s active participation that links learning with living and promotes reflection.
- facilitates children’s understanding of development issues and why healthy behaviours are important.
- includes relevant, do-able and fun activities that promote life skills, confidence and self-esteem.
- encourages children to take ownership and identify health and development priorities relevant to themselves and their communities.
- develops children’s decision-making and problem solving abilities in order to take action on identified priorities.
- develops children’s ability to communicate, empathise and cope with difficult circumstances.
- recognises children’s capacities as change agents, who require the facilitative support but not the dominance of adults.
- ensures that the personal development and gains of the children implementing activities are as important as those of children with whom they are working (e.g. older children working with pre-schoolers).