Pelicano Chair
Child poverty is worldwide understood as a violation of children's rights, and constitutes a persistent and complex social problem. Children and youth in poverty situations can make poor use of existing social resources and basic services (health care, education, housing and a quality living environment, youth services, socio-cultural and leisure initiatives, child care, mobility, public space, etc.). Moreover, children and youth who grow up in poverty situations often quickly understand how poverty and social inequality reproduce themselves. In order to survive, they often resign themselves, unnoticed at an early age, to the fact that they have no open future prospects and cannot make their dreams come true. Despite the urgency of the issue in Belgium, there is insufficient research on the levers needed to combat child poverty in our country.
OBJECTIVES
The Chair provides an opportunity to conduct qualitative research on how to mobilize social resources for children, youth and families to reverse these dynamics, and gain in-depth insight into how they can develop an open future perspective. The research also explores how professionals and volunteers in all the various domains of life can turn this powerlessness and despondency into outrage, hope, and aspirations for the future.
DONOR
Pelicano Foundation, founded in 2009, is an officially recognized and independent organization and views child poverty as a form of social inequality. With commitment from care partners, Stichting Pelicano works to provide sustainable support to break the vicious cycle of poverty and create future opportunities for children and their families because all children are entitled to equal opportunities. For this reason, through financial support, Pelicano Foundation wants to create good conditions for children to grow up in. The Pelicano Foundation offers sustainable support to more than 2,800 children and young people in Belgium.
PERIOD
2022-present
SUPERVISOR
Griet Roets (1977) has a PhD in Pedagogical Sciences and is currently a senior lecturer in Social Work. Her research interests include social work, social inequalities of poverty, disability, gender, age, and place/space, conceptualizations of citizenship, socio-spatial perspectives in social work, and qualitative research.