Pink Expertise and Queer World are launching the joint project Queer Minority Expertise in Child Welfare Services to strengthen knowledge of gender and sexuality diversity among child welfare staff. The aim is to ensure that queer children, young people and families, regardless of background, receive customised and equal help. The project builds, among other things, on the report "Queer children and young people in child welfare services" from 2020, which revealed a significant need for increased expertise among child welfare staff.
Courses and skills development are central to the initiative. Through a joint course package, Pink Competence and Queer World will offer training to child welfare staff, students and other relevant stakeholders. The offer also includes counselling and guidance in individual cases. The courses are customised to the individual workplace and place of study, and are offered as shorter courses, full professional days or as two separate modules that build on each other. Those who have previously received courses from Pink Expertise are also offered courses from Queer World.
I'm glad that Queer World is contributing its expertise on issues such as queer people in multicultural homes!
- "Many queer children and young people in child welfare services feel that gender and sexuality are not thematised, and that it is somewhat haphazard how they are met and taken into account in cases and measures. Through this project, we want to help ensure that all employees in child welfare services have the knowledge they need to meet them with confidence and understanding. I'm pleased that Skeiv Verden is contributing with its expertise on issues such as queer people in multicultural homes," says Heidi Leona Norum-Wilmar, initiative manager for Pink Competence Child Welfare at FRI and a specialist in sexological counselling.
An important part of the project is the update of the online resource www.lhbtibarnevern.no. This digital tool will be strengthened in order to offer relevant and easily accessible information to child welfare workers who meet queer children and families. The online resource is a way of making knowledge about gender and sexuality diversity available to the child welfare sector, and can be a useful tool in a busy working day. - "We are pleased that we can contribute to the good work that Rosa kompetanse has been doing for several years. Child welfare services are an important institution that can make a big difference to the lives of queer children and young people. It is important to us that all employees in child welfare services have expertise in both queerness and having a minority background, so that they can provide the right help at the right time," says Anders Løkkeberg, psychologist at Queer World.
Through this initiative, Pink Expertise and Queer World hope to contribute to more equal child welfare services, where all children and young people are met with competence, understanding and respect, regardless of their identity or background.
