How can professionals in child protection, protect, promote, and create collaborative process leading to transformative participation on individual and collective level?

Abstract
This presentation is based on the findings of a co-edited volume published in May 2023;
INTERNATIONAL POLICY EXCHANGE SERIES Published in collaboration with the
Center for International Policy Exchanges University of Maryland entitled “CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE’S PARTICIPATION IN CHILD PROTECTION.”
The overarching question that drives the book is what conditions are conducive to children’s and young people’s participation occurs in international contexts. The volume analyzes how children and young people, professionals in public child protection systems, and other organizations involved in protecting children from violence all over the globe promote children and young people's participation in child protection practice and research. The book weaves together the work of over 20 contributors who work as practitioners or scholars in child protection. Objective: The main objective of this presentation is to present the main takeaways from the book that are grounded in the book's nine empirical chapters. I will draw on the chapter findings to show how children’s participation occurs at the institutional levels through child-centric practices by children and youth and professionals working in public child protection systems and other organizations; at the cultural level through child-centric values, and at the individual level through children’s actions and interactions with their communities. At the individual level, children and young people have different experiences with participation in child protection depending on their social position, such as age, gender, ability, social class, sexuality, and ethnic, migrant, and national backgrounds.