What is a child-friendly space?

A child-friendly space is an environment that is designed to help children and adolescents feel safe, calm, and comfortable while they are interacting with practitioners. A child-friendly space is about more than just the physical space. It is about how children and adolescents feel when they are in this space. For child and adolescent trafficking victims, child-friendly spaces are typically utilized in locations where practitioners interact with formerly trafficked children and adolescents in the course of their professional work. The practitioners who are present in a child-friendly space will depend on the nature of the space and the work being done. They may work for the government, non-governmental organizations, or private organizations.

In Costa Rica, child-friendly spaces have been developed for child and adolescent trafficking victims within the framework of the Innovations in Addressing Child Trafficking (IACT) program to support child-friendly, victim-sensitive, and trauma-informed identification, protection, assistance and access to justice for trafficking victims. Child and adolescent trafficking victims may come to a child-friendly space under different circumstances and at different points in time, including before being identified as victims of trafficking or in the course of identification; when receiving different assistance services; when being involved as victims and/or witnesses in civil or criminal proceedings related to their trafficking experiences; and in the course of their reintegration in their families or in a new setting. In Costa Rica, child-friendly spaces for child and adolescent trafficking victims have been developed in PANI offices, hospitals, prosecutor offices, and NGOs.

The IACT Program has developed the following resources to support the creation and use of child-friendly spaces in Costa Rica.