The mission of the International Network of Child Policy Research Centers is to build knowledge that best serves the interest of children and youth, worldwide.
The well being of children is a concern that crosses national boundaries, and there is increasing international awareness of the importance of research for informing the policies and practices intended to foster children's well being. Indeed, over the last 15 years or so, in particular, there has been an increasing cross-national interest among institutions in both the public and private sectors in responding to issues related to child poverty, child abuse and neglect, positive youth development, and children's rights. In much of the world, the impetus for this work was catalyzed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. With it has come a growing interest in quality research on children around the world, and on how to understand and address children's issues through effective policy and practice.
In 1996, on behalf of an anonymous donor, Chapin Hall assisted in the establishment of similar, new children's policy research centers in Israel, Jordan, Ireland, and South Africa and an international fellowship program that brought researchers and policy makers to Chapin Hall for periods of study and exchange. As relationships with these centers and individuals developed, interaction among them has also grown, leading to an evolving international children's policy research network, coordinated by Chapin Hall, with participating centers in South Africa, Ireland, England, Northern Ireland, Jordan, Norway, Brazil, South Korea, India and Israel. The aim of Chapin Hall's International Network of Child Policy Research Centers is to use cross-national perspectives to generate and disseminate knowledge and inform children's policy both in the U.S. and around the globe.
Interaction and communication among centers has been pursued largely informally, spurred by common interests, by participation in various thematic working groups, and by the participants' need for information or desire for feedback on particular issues or products. Chapin Hall also convenes a 3-day plenary meeting, approximately every 18 months, to provide participating centers with a formal opportunity to work through particular institutional issues of common concern, present and receive feedback on research products, engage in substantive discussion around an issue of policy or practice with implications for cross-national research, and think strategically about the developing goals and appropriate next steps for the network.
Informed by rigorous scientific research, today Chapin Hall is an independent children's policy research center that continues to bring the voice of the child to bear on children's policy issues.
