Reporting Institute on Childhood Forced Migration in Europe
4 Rue de Chevreuse
Paris, France
A man carries a child in his arms after disembarking from a Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) lifeboat that picked them up at sea while crossing the English Channel from France with other migrants, on the beach at Dungeness on the southeast coast of England.
The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma is offering a three-day training institute for reporters and editors across Europe to deepen their knowledge of the impact of forced migration and displacement on children. This institute – part of the Dart Center’s “Childhood Forced Migration Journalism Project” – will be held April 4-6, 2025 at the Columbia Global Paris Center.
Children are at the forefront of a historic global refugee crisis, displaced by the millions in active conflict zones and countries decimated by violence, persecution and poverty. While children make up less than a third of the global population, they represent 41% of the world’s refugees and their needs and experiences are often overlooked, oversimplified or sensationalized by the news media.
Reporting on children impacted by violence, trauma and adversity requires knowledge of early brain science and development, and the impact of extreme stress and trauma on children’s cognitive and emotional growth. It also requires trauma-informed reporting skills such as ethical interviewing techniques; understanding consent and assent; protecting identities; handling graphic imagery; and recognizing children’s resiliency and agency.
This three-day training institute will bring together Europe-based journalists with leading researchers, clinicians, child development experts and practitioners for expert briefings, panels, workshops and conversations on how to produce science-informed, ethical and effective stories on children and families affected by forced migration and displacement. The institute will provide opportunities for knowledge sharing, source development, skills-building and peer-to-peer learning as well as foster a network of journalists dedicated to reporting on children with insight, accuracy, sensitivity and depth.
This reporting institute is organized by the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, a project of Columbia Journalism School, in collaboration with the Program on Forced Migration and Health (PFMH) and the Care and Protection of Children (CPC) Learning Network at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health and the Columbia Global Paris Center.
The “Childhood Forced Migration Journalism Project” is funded by Columbia Global at Columbia University. Columbia Global brings together major global initiatives from across Columbia University to advance knowledge and foster global engagement. It is the latest project of the Dart Center’s Early Childhood Journalism Initiative, created in 2017 to encourage and support science-informed, in-depth reporting on the impact of trauma and adversity on children.