Child Protection Certificate Program

The Harvard François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights offers Harvard graduate students the opportunity to obtain a certificate in child protection. This interdisciplinary qualification is open to students from any Harvard graduate school. The 2022-2023 CPC Cohort is full. Please check this website in late summer 2023 for applications for next year’s cohort.

Child protection work aims to prevent, respond to, and resolve abuse, neglect, exploitation, and violence experienced by children in domestic and international settings. It requires an interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral approach that encompasses work in health, education, social service, public policy, and law enforcement to advance the protection of children and involves collaborating with a wide range of partners across government and within civil society, communities, and families.

The certificate program incorporates ongoing child protection research and practice grounded in field-based realities and takes into account the expertise of UNICEF, a university-wide faculty steering committee, and external child protection experts.

With this comprehensive graduate-level training, certificate recipients will be better equipped to:

  • Identify relevant social, economic, legal, and cultural issues affecting the protection of children,
  • Build a stronger child protection evidence base by engaging in more rigorous research, monitoring, evaluation, and use of data,
  • Understand the multiple interactions at policy, community, family, and individual levels needed to create a protective environment for children,
  • Gain the competencies to develop the cross-sectoral partnerships necessary to a holistic child protection system.

CPC 2022-2023

Take a look at the 2022-2023 brochure for the Child Protection Certificate Program for Harvard graduate students. [Update: The 2022-2023 CPC cohort is currently full.]

The CPC Curriculum 

The curriculum is composed of courses selected from across Harvard’s graduate programs and covers five domains of child protection:

A. CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEMS

  • Law and Policy
  • Systems Capacity and Integration
  • Data/Statistics
  • Birth Registration

B. VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN  

  • Protection from Violence, Exploitation, Abuse, Neglect
  • Protection in Emergencies
  • Impact of Violence on Children

C. JUSTICE FOR CHILDREN

  • Children in Conflict with the Law: Detention/Diversion
  • Children in Contact with the Law: Family Court; Foster Care; Criminal Witness

D. SOCIAL CHANGE/ FAMILY STRENGTHENING    

  • Social Protection
  • Social Inclusion/Non-Discrimination
  • Cultural and Social Norms/Social Change

E. CHILD PROTECTION LEADERSHIP TOOLS

  • Leadership
  • Negotiation
  • Advocacy

Child Protection Certificate Requirements

Participation in a one-semester, non-credit child protection seminar.

The mandatory seminar, consisting of panels of child protection experts brought in specifically to talk to and meet with certificate candidates, will be offered in the spring 2022 semester.  Details as to the dates/times of the seminar will be provided to accepted candidates during the fall semester to allow ample time for planning. Seminars will enable candidates to consolidate their understanding of the child protection field in both the domestic and international arenas through exchange with the invited speakers and mentorship by senior child protection practitioners. Students will be encouraged to share their own child protection research and experience and engage with their peers.

Completion of 12 credits selected from CPC course offerings in at least three of the curriculum’s five domains.

The child protection foundational courses count as one of the domains required to qualify for the certificate.

CPC Application and Approval Process

Application: Program candidates are required to complete a short application, consisting of an essay and a proposed list of qualifying CPC courses. Application forms for the 2022-2023 cohort can be found here.[Update: The 2022-2023 CPC cohort is currently full.]

Applications will be reviewed by the FXB Strategy Officer/Child Protection Program Director, in consultation with the faculty steering committee. The program has an annual limit of 30 students.

Approval: Prior to graduation, candidates will submit an approval request, detailing their completion of the requirements and providing a statement assessing their program of study. The program director and committee will review these requests against the student’s transcripts. Approved candidates will be invited to attend the program’s annual spring awards ceremony, where they will receive their certificates, successfully marking completion of the program.

Child Protection Certificate Program Courses

(Please note that the direct links to each course work best with your Harvard log-in.)

Foundational Course: Covers Three or More Child Protection Domains

GHP 553: Human Rights Dilemmas in Child Protection (also offered as IGA 342M) | Jacqueline Bhabha  | This course is not required, but if taken, candidates may apply the credits towards domain A, B or C (below) as needed.

A. Child Protection Systems

SBS222: Social Services for Children, Adolescent & Families | Peter Maramaldi

SBS201: Society and Health | Ichiro Kawachi

A-612: Organizing: People, Power, Change (also offered as MLD-377)| Marshall Ganz

GHP231: Sexual and Reproductive Health A Global Perspective | Ana Langer

IGA-385: Strategizing for Human Rights: Moving from Ideals to Practice | Douglas Johnson

SBS 246: Maternal and Child Health: Programs and Policies | Henning Tiemeier

SBS 281: Principles of Social and Behavioral Research | Laura Kubzansky

SBS 220: Society and its Effects on Child Health | Ronald Samuels

GHP 204: Foundations of Global Mental Health | Vikram Patel

GHP 209 Early Childhood Development in Global Contexts (also offered as EDU A-827) | Dana Charles McCoy, Aisha Yousafzai

SBS-299 Science-Driven Innovation in the Early Childhood Ecosystem | Shonkoff

SUP 211 Institutional & Community-based Strategies to support Children & Families (also offered as EDU H307) | Wilson

HPM 562 Narrative Leadership – Using Storytelling to Mobilize Collective Action in Public Health | Stojicic

SUP 425M Innovation and Justice: Developing New School and Community Strategies that Strengthen Children | Richard Weissbourd (also offered as EDU H310W)

SUP 472 Inequality in Education Policy (also offered as EDU A-142) | Carlana

B. Violence Against Children

GHP 515: International Humanitarian Response 1* | Sean Michael Kivlehan

GHP 518: International Humanitarian Response 2* | Sean Michael Kivlehan

ID240: Principles of Injury Control | David Hemenway

GHP553: Human Rights Dilemmas in Child Protection (also offered as IGA 342M) | Jacqueline Bhabha

EDU H310M: Establishing Loving Spaces for Learning: Preventing Bullying and Discrimination in U.S. Schools | Gretchen Brion-Meisels, Jonathan Whichard

C. Justice For Children

A203: Educational Justice | Jacob Fay

HLS Child Advocacy: Child Welfare, Education & Juvenile Justice Clinical Seminar| Crisanne Hazen

EDU T416: Transformative Justice | Kaia Stern

HLS Emerging Issues in Refugee Protection: The Representation of Child Asylum Seekers | Nancy Kelly, John Willshire

HLS Gender Violence, Law and Social Justice | Diane Rosenfeld

EDU T406 Educating Incarcerated Youth: Practice, Research, Policy, and Advocacy | Lynette Tannis

EDU H304: Legal and Ethical Issues in Child Advocacy | Jacqueline Zeller

D. Social Change/Family Strengthening

SUP 470: Strategies and Policies for Education Excellence with Equity (also offered as EDU A108) | Ronald Ferguson

SBS 212: Developmental Disabilities I: Evaluation, Assessment and Systems* | David Helm

SBS 214: Developmental Disabilities II: Value, Policy and Change* | David Helm

HDS 3335 Learning in Context: Narratives of Displacement and Belonging in Israel and the West Bank* | Dianne Moore

EDU H311 Issues of Diversity in Cross-Cultural Counseling and Advocacy | Josephine Kim

EDU H210P: Queering Education | Gretchen Brion-Meisels

HLS The Art of Social Change | Elizabeth Bartholet, Crisanne Hazen

EDU-H382 The Challenges Kids Face: Developmental, Cultural & Contextual Perspectives on Risk & Resilience | Holly Lem

MLD 304: Science of Behavior Change | Rogers

EDU A314 Collaborative Action for Children: Redesigning Education for Equity | Reville

E. Child Protection Leadership Tools


LEADERSHIP

MLD 201: Exercising Leadership: The Politics of Change | Farayi Chipungu, Timothy O’Brien, Hugh O’Doherty

MLD 102: Getting Things Done:  Management in a Development Context | Matt Andrews

MLD 103: PDIA in Action: Development Through Facilitated Emergence | Matt Andrews

EDU A302: Equity in Action in School Systems | Jennifer Cheatham      

NEGOTIATION

EDU A501: Negotiation* | Deborah Goldstein, Todd Gillien

HPM 252: Negotiation | Linda Kaboolian

MLD-220M: Fundamentals of Negotiation | Brian Mandell

MLD-224: Behavioral Science of Negotiations | Julie Minson

MLD-223: Negotiating Across Differences | Kessely Hong

RESEARCH & ADVOCACY

SBS 245: Social and Behavioral Research Methods | Steve Gortmaker, Erica Kenney

EDU S501Y / 502Y: Researching in Community: Intergenerational Participatory Action Research for Educational Justice | Gretchen Brion-Meisels

HLS: Special Education Advocacy for Students Impacted by Trauma | Michael Gregory

*Cross registration by permission of professor only.

Note:  In order to qualify for the CPC courses must be taken for-credit. | Regular Harvard course cross-registration and enrollment processes apply for all CPC courses.