On November 12th, 2017 we held the second meeting of our Child Advisory Board (CAB). One of the CAB’s roles is to advise us about how children should be treated in a justice system and to help us deliver their voice to experts who work with children within this system, by sharing their experience. The meeting was very interesting and our members wrote a report on what we did:

We started the workshop playing a game by saying numbers, but we weren’t allowed to say the same number at the same time. The goal of the game was “group cohesion” – to listen to one another better in the game and during the meetings and not to say what one has to do. The game was interesting, creative and we were very successful.

After the game, we were generating questions for the Institution Dugave, for the head of the institutions and the professionals who work with us. We did this because we think that some of the rules we have in the institution don’t take into the account that we are all young women, 15 – 17 years old, who will soon be independent and of age. We would also like for them to make our living there easier and not harder.

We also had some questions for the experts who work in the justice system, whom we will meet during the project. We would like for them to explain how everything looks like when children end up in court. We also wanted to know some specific details about certain legal procedures. We wrote down questions for social services and experts who work there and we’re hoping to get some feedback.

At the end, we talked about how did we like this meeting and we also discussed some informal topics. We ended the meeting with our group greeting, the same way as we started it. We’re very much looking forward to our next meeting!

Child Advisory Board is one of the activites of the project Alternative Ways to Address Youth (AWAY). Here you can read the latest news about the project.