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About the Center
For the system of rehabilitation services aimed at children drawn into crime and child victims of crime to be renewed, and for improvements in services provided under the Child Protection Law and the juvenile justice system, as well as efforts to prevent child abuse and violence against children, scientific research is essential. Additionally, to ensure that conducted research meets the needs of the field, collaboration with professionals working directly in the field is necessary.
For this purpose, Turkey’s first “Practice and Research Center for Street-Working and Street-Living Children (SOYAÇ)” was established on March 18, 2010, at Maltepe University.
As in almost every field, there is a gap between field professionals and academics. Numerous international studies have highlighted this gap, emphasizing the lack of collaboration between service providers and researchers (Kidd et al., 2006). To create a platform for mutual learning between field professionals and academics and to support the work of what was then called SHÇEK, a cooperation protocol was signed between SHÇEK and Maltepe University on March 18, 2010.
Since its establishment, SOYAÇ has been conducting community-centered projects and initiatives using a trauma-informed, interdisciplinary systems approach. It shares the outcomes of its work with all stakeholders through student symposiums and creates opportunities for knowledge and experience exchange through national and international conferences and training programs.
SOYAÇ represents Turkey in the “Safe Families Safe Children” (SFSC) International Street Children’s Coalition, which brings together 10 esteemed organizations from 14 countries. SFSC has developed a therapeutic service model for working with abused children and their families. This model, which won the Best Service Model Award from the World Bank and UNESCO in 2008, has been recognized as a successful approach by the international academic community.
The model was compiled into a booklet and presented in November 2011 at meetings of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) in the UK, hosted by Lord Hannay and chaired by MP Russel Brown. These meetings were attended by distinguished academics with significant international contributions in the field, as well as board members of major organizations such as UNICEF, high-ranking bureaucrats, and British parliamentarians.