We are excited to have partnered with Missing Children Europe and two of our members in Greece and Portugal to create a short online course: Understanding and Responding to children who run away from home and institutions.
This course is now available in English, French, German, Polish and Spanish (Dutch, Greek and Portuguese versions will be uploaded in autumn 2022!). These four new languages, complementary to the English course, are accessible as downloadable subtitles throughout the entire course.
The course aims to advance knowledge on the experiences of children who run away from home or from institutions and to improve the ability of professionals and law enforcement to detect and respond to runaway behaviour in a timely manner. Based on feedback form learners who completed the course earlier in 2022, 97% of learners who have completed the course so far agree that their knowledge about why children run away has improved and over 90% state that they have improved knowledge on the resources and practices to use after a child has run away.
The RADAR online course was developed as part of the EU funded RADAR project and consists of four weekly 3-hour modules. The course is targeted at professionals and law enforcement officials who come into contact with children at risk of running away or who have run away in the past, however it is designed to accommodate learners with different backgrounds and knowledge, including families, extended members of society, and students.
The course is available for free on FutureLearn, with the possibility to upgrade and obtain a certificate of completion.
RADAR (Running Away: Drivers – Awareness – Responses) project aims to reframe runaway behaviour as an indicator of underlying adverse childhood experiences such as abuse, neglect, mental health problems, or living with a family member with mental health problems and/or addiction. The project will raise awareness on the topic of runaway children through research with the provision of advocacy tools, development of training and toolkits as well as a Mass Open Online Course for professionals in relevant fields.
The course aims to improve understanding of runaways, equip professionals with the ability to detect and respond to behaviour before a child goes missing, and encourage trust between professionals and children upon their return.
RADAR project partners
