What began in 2001 as an exploratory meeting of child welfare scholars convened by Chapin Hall has evolved into a dynamic network of child policy research centers in Brazil, England, India, Ireland, Israel, Northern Ireland, Norway, South Africa, South Korea, and the United States.

Children make up thirty percent of the world’s population but are a silent constituency in the world of social policy and research. Only recently have issues such as child poverty, child abuse and neglect, positive youth development, and children's rights gained cross-national interest, and with them, a growing demand for quality research to inform effective policy and practice. For more than a decade, Chapin Hall’s International Network of Child Policy Research Centers has addressed this emerging need by fostering coordinated and substantive cross-national exchange.

“It’s fairly rare to see research centers with an explicit focus on developing knowledge about children’s lives that can be practically applied,” explains Chapin Hall Fellow Robert Chaskin, who directs the International Network. “We have partners in both developed and developing countries, which enriches everyone’s efforts to establish a presence and make their child policy research useful. One of the Network’s most important functions is to provide a space for peer learning about policy and research issues that span political borders.”

This learning flows in both directions. To inform his own research into community development initiatives, Chaskin drew upon his International Network colleagues to learn about similarly spirited efforts in contexts as diverse as cities in Brazil, England, and Israel. “Everywhere, you find a concern with creating safe social spaces and activities for kids to learn together and to have opportunities beyond their own neighborhoods,” says Chaskin, an associate professor in the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration. “But in each place, different levels of government intervention, nonprofit participation, poverty levels, and neighborhood characteristics can greatly affect both approaches and results.”

Beyond the value of substantive exchange around policy agendas and research findings, Chaskin acknowledges that researchers involved in these kinds of research centers have very few opportunities to come together to address critical organizational matters, such as how to create effective dissemination strategies and facilitate interaction with policymakers. So in addition to scholarly activities and  periodic plenary meetings, the International Network facilitates a rich set of informal relationships that enable the staffs of participating centers to call upon each other’s expertise and advice. A number of researchers associated with International Network centers are now active members of a related Chapin Hall initiative, the International Society of Child Indicators, which was cofounded by Chapin Hall fellow Robert Goerge.

Convening working groups across countries and centers is another vital International Network activity. Among the currently active working groups are those focusing on ways to bridge research, policy, and practice; transitions to adulthood for youth at risk; evaluation of complex community initiatives; and child welfare policies for children with special needs. Shared work of this nature can broaden into larger projects, such as Chapin Hall’s planning around the 2009 global conference marking the twentieth anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Chapin Hall is working with Childwatch International Research Network, which is cosponsoring the conference with the Unicef Innocenti Research Centre, to organize a stream of presentations on the topic of bridging research policy and practice.

Collaborations nurtured by the International Network have resulted in two volumes. These are Research for Action: Cross-National Perspectives on Connecting Knowledge, Policy, and Practice for Children (Oxford University Press 2008) and Residential Care of Children: Comparative Perspectives (Oxford University Press 2009). Even though publications are not the primary goal of the International Network, they are a good example of how it can extend learning beyond the immediate participants and contribute to putting child well-being on the policy agendas of countries around the world.