Goodman Michael L, Seidel Sarah E, Springer Andrew, Elliott Aleisha, Markham Christine, Serag Hani, Keiser Philip, Raimer Ben, Raimer-Goodman Lauren, Gatwiri Christine, Munene Kelvin, Gitari Stanley
Department of Internal Medicine, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, United States.
Sodzo International, Houston, TX, United States.
Front Psychol. 2023 Aug 23;14:1175593. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1175593. eCollection 2023.
Millions of children and youth live on city streets across the globe, vulnerable to substance use, abuse, material and structural neglect. Structural resilience, the re-establishment of access to structural goods within a society such as housing, education, and healthcare following some interruption, provides an orientation for research and interventional efforts with street-involved children and youth (SICY). Further, a structural resilience framework supports organizing interactions between levels and sectors of a socio-ecology.
Following the expressed interests of Kenyan SICY, and consistent with emerging policy interests at national and global levels, we assess reintegration trajectories of Kenyan SICY ( = 227) participating in a new program intervention and model. The intervention combines two coordinated, parallel programs - one focused on the rescue, rehabilitation, reintegration and resocialization of SICY, and the other focused on empowering families and communities to provide better care for children and youth who are reintegrating from life on the streets to the broader community. Data were collected and analyzed from multiple stages across SICY involvement with the intervention.
We found 79% of SICY participants reintegrated with the broader community, and 50% reintegrated with families of origin and returned to school. Twenty-five percent of participants reintegrated to a boarding school, polytechnical school, or began a business. Probability of reintegrating successfully was significantly improved among participants whose families participated in the family- and community-oriented program, who were younger, with less street-exposure, expressed more personal interests, and desired to reintegrate with family.
To our knowledge, these are the first quantitative data published of successful reintegration of SICY to the broader, non-institutionalized community in any low- or middle-income country. Future research should (1) identify factors across socio-ecological levels and sectors contributing to health and developmental outcomes of reintegrated children and youth, (2) mechanisms to support SICY for whom the interventional strategy did not work, (3) methods to prevent street-migration by children and youth, and (4) system development to coordinate follow-up and relevant investment by institutions, organizations and community leaders to continue reintegration work.
全球数百万儿童和青少年流落街头，易沾染毒品、遭受毒品滥用、物质匮乏且缺乏社会关怀。结构恢复力是指在经历某种中断后，重新建立社会中诸如住房、教育和医疗保健等结构性资源的获取途径，它为针对街头儿童和青少年（SICY）的研究及干预工作提供了方向。此外，结构恢复力框架有助于组织社会生态不同层面和部门之间的互动。
根据肯尼亚街头儿童和青少年表达的兴趣，并与国家和全球层面新出现的政策关注点保持一致，我们评估了参与一项新的项目干预和模式的227名肯尼亚街头儿童和青少年的重新融入轨迹。该干预措施结合了两个协调并行的项目——一个侧重于街头儿童和青少年的救助、康复、重新融入和再社会化，另一个侧重于增强家庭和社区的能力，以便为从街头生活重新融入更广泛社区的儿童和青少年提供更好的照料。在街头儿童和青少年参与干预的多个阶段收集并分析了数据。
我们发现79%的街头儿童和青少年参与者重新融入了更广泛的社区，50%重新融入了原生家庭并重返学校。25%的参与者重新融入了寄宿学校、理工学校或开始创业。在那些家庭参与了以家庭和社区为导向项目的参与者中，成功重新融入的概率显著提高，这些参与者年龄更小，街头经历较少，表达了更多个人兴趣，并且希望与家人重新团聚。
据我们所知，这些是在任何低收入或中等收入国家发表的关于街头儿童和青少年成功重新融入更广泛的非机构化社区的首批定量数据。未来的研究应：（1）确定社会生态各层面和部门中有助于重新融入的儿童和青少年健康及发展成果的因素；（2）为干预策略不起作用的街头儿童和青少年提供支持的机制；（3）预防儿童和青少年流落街头的方法；（4）系统开发，以协调机构、组织和社区领袖的后续跟进及相关投资，继续开展重新融入工作。
