Our Child Advisory Board

Children offer insights that adults alone cannot provide. Their participation strengthens outcomes and reinforces a culture of respect and shared responsibility.

Meaningful child participation is a cornerstone of effective, inclusive, and rights-based programming in our organization. Child Advisory Boards align with this approach as a proven mechanism that enables children and youth to thoughtfully contribute to decisions that affect their lives both with their communities.

CAB model is central to how we fulfill our mission of Nisma Arsis and deliver effective, rights-based and participatory programming.

Through Child Advisory Boards, children actively inform the design, implementation, and evaluation of our interventions that remain focused in such pillars as social protection, community development and integrative services, education, mental health, juvenile justice, employment and emergency response for specific cases. Their insights help us identify real needs, anticipate risks, and develop solutions that are relevant, inclusive, and sustainable within their ecosystems.

Guided by strong safeguarding standards and facilitated by experienced professionals, our Child Advisory Boards provide a safe and structured space for meaningful participation. Children are respected as partners in change, not passive beneficiaries.

By integrating children’s perspectives into decision-making, we improve accountability, enhance program effectiveness, and remain true to our organizational values. They are a vital mechanism through which we create lasting positive changes in the lives of children and communities.

Our Child Advisory Boards

A Child Advisory Board at national level has been established with a considered number of 12 youth from vulnerable communities. It is a formal, structured union that brings children together to provide informed advice, feedback, and recommendations to different topics aiming transformative decision-making processes.

These young people are empowered to share their perspectives, identify priorities, and influence the design, implementation, and evaluation of programs related to their community needs.

Our experience has shown that when Child Advisory Boards are thoughtfully designed and ethically facilitated, they become powerful instruments for inclusion, learning, and positive change.

4 members of our programs have participated to an international CAB body promoting the Albanian perspective and culture regarding the advancement of mental health support systems for vulnerable children and youth in the framework of Unity in Care program. Online meetings with young people from Romania, Greece, Kosovo and Hungary have empowered the vision of exchanging models and experiences on how to identify, refer and support those mostly in need.

This team of dedicated and passioned young people is committed to advance their knowledge and potential with their active participation raising their voice as changemakers.

Participation in these boards is always voluntary and respectful, recognizing children and young people as capable contributors while honoring their evolving capacities.

The value of Child participation in Nisma ARSIS programs

Child Advisory Boards established in our programs are grounded internationally to child rights principles, particularly the right of children to express their views on matters affecting them. Integrating children’s perspectives has resonated with our programming phases to:

• More responsive and effective programs and services
• Stronger alignment between organizational actions and what really matters to children and youth.
• Increased accountability and transparency in decision-making helping the youth to be more present in the processes of designing social plans or budgeting child-related services at a local level.
• Enhanced confidence, leadership, and civic engagement among children and youth activating them to fulfill their rights.

In this joint journey with our CAB members, we will continue to:

• Robust child safeguarding and protection standards in social care systems
• Empower and build capacities of stakeholders and other young people to increase their knowledge in establishing CABs and create collective actions coming from child perspective. The manual contextualized in Albanian is a tool that all professionals and young people can use during the implementation (https://drive.google.com/file/d/19XabAGiIaMo7-9SuYy7ZqH9fWs4QEFOY/view?usp=drive_link)
•  Continue to represent inclusiveness of this approach which brings us closer to diverse backgrounds and abilities of children and young people.
• Create and promote child-friendly methods and child-informed solutions that encourage open and meaningful dialogue towards policy makers.
• Empower feedback mechanisms so children understand how their input is used.

Through years of practice, we have witnessed how well-supported Child Advisory Boards foster trust, improve program quality, and build lasting partnerships between children and adults. Their ideas become actions and the actions become change makers to their communities.

Child Advisory Boards are meaningful partnerships built on trust, respect, and shared purpose. As an organization with proven experience in child participation, we remain dedicated to strengthening these boards and advocating for the inclusion of children’s voices at every level of decision-making. By working alongside children and young people, we contribute to more equitable, effective, and sustainable outcomes for communities and societies as a whole.