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Auditório ESE
Dia 37 de Maio
2052
(Re)thinking Foster Care
Emerging Challenges and Systemic Responses
International Seminar
9/10 September 2026
Registration
Program
Location
Foster Care in the beginning of the 21st Century: Emerging Challenges and Systemic Responses
in a Changing World

As the first quarter of the 21st century draws to a close, it has become increasingly apparent that foster care systems are confronted with new and complex challenges that can no longer be effectively addressed through the frameworks developed in the previous century. While the recruitment of new foster families has long been a structural concern, this difficulty has deepened due to demographic shifts, evolving family structures, economic constraints, and an escalating housing crisis in many countries.

In parallel, foster care responds now to a broader array of social transformations, including a diversification of family structures, increased migration, growing cultural, religious and ethnic diversity, evolving understandings of gender and identity, and the imperative to ensure meaningful participation of children and all relevant stakeholders in care processes.

These pressing issues intersect with multiple dimensions of foster care practice and policy, namely: kinship care, family contact, the maintenance and regulation of relationships with birth families, therapeutic and specialized foster care provisions, transitions to independent living, and the broader constructs of well-being and life satisfaction for children and young people in care.

The Polytechnic University of Porto is pleased to invite you to join us in September 2026 for two days of critical reflection, interdisciplinary dialogue, and collaborative exploration of contemporary challenges in foster care research.

Call for papers

Submission Guidelines

Each participant is limited to three submissions in the Individual Oral Presentation category, either as first author or co-author. Symposium presentations do not count toward this limit.

Call for Papers
1st Call – January to April

Submit Contacts
‍Individual Oral Presentation
  • Maximum Word Count: 250 (excluding references). Include 3 to 5 keywords.
  • Submission and presentation languages: Portuguese, Spanish, or English.
    Formatting: APA 7th edition.
  • Blind Review: As the review process is blind, do not include any author information or curriculum vitae in the abstract submission. Author details are not disclosed at any stage of the review process.
Symposium
Symposia provide researchers with the opportunity to present studies on a specific topic, integrating a coherent set of papers.
The symposium coordinator must:
  • Submit the symposium abstract, describing the topic and its relevance to the conference framework, with a maximum of 250 words;
  • Be the sole person responsible for submitting the anonymized symposium. The attached file containing the abstracts (3 or 4) must be submitted without any reference to the authors’ names or affiliations;
  • Submit both the symposium abstract and the attachment simultaneously on the CMT3 platform.
Exemplo

Título

Apelido, Autor A.1*, Apelido,Autor B.2,3, Apelido, Autor C.1,…& Apelido, Autor Z 2

1Afiliação, Departamento, Universidade/Instituto, Cidade, País
‍2Afiliação, Departamento, Universidade/Instituto, Cidade, País
‍3Afiliação, Departamento, Universidade/Instituto, Cidade, País

* Autor correspondente: Autor A. Apelido, email

Introdução:
‍breve explicação sobre a relevância do tema, destacando o problema ou a lacuna que o estudo aborda.

Objetivo:
‍inserir o objetivo principal.

‍Métodos:
‍inserir a descrição dos métodos utilizados (i.e., materiais, amostra, análise de dados).

‍Resultados:
‍inserir uma descrição dos resultados mais relevantes.

‍Discussão/Conclusão:
‍insira uma descrição das principais conclusões obtidas.

‍Palavras-chave:
‍3 a 5 palavras-chave.

‍Referências (se aplicável):
Normas APA 7.ª versão

The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.
https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/IFCRN2026

Program

September 9

Este bloco de texto é opcional. Se preferir que seja ocultado, por favor indique.

Na tabela abaixo será introduzido o texto que submeter com o programa. Por favor indique devidamente qual o título, subtítulo e corpo de texto para cada entrada.

Abaixo apresentam-se exemplos do que poderá ser o programa.
Considere-se a primeira entrada como EXEMPLO. As seguintes têm texto representativo.


9.30h-10.15h
10.15h-11.00h
11.00h-11.30h
11.30h-12.45h
13.00h-14h30h
14.30h-16.00h
16.00h-16h30h
16.30h-18.00h
18.30h

Welcome  and introduction
Keynote  Speaker 1
Coffe - Break
Parallel  session 1
Break Lunch
Parallel  session 2
Coffe - Break
Symposium  session
Seminar  Dinner

09:30 - 10:15
Welcome  and introduction
Exemplo de Subtítulo
10:15 - 11:00
Jorge Fernández del Valle
Optimizing the social capital of family solidarity: various forms of collaboration
11:00 - 11:30
CoffeE - Break
11:30 - 12:45
Parallel  session 1
13:00 - 14:30
Break Lunch
14:30 - 16:00
Parallel  session 2
16:00 - 16:30
CoffeE - Break
16:30 - 18:00
Symposium  session
18:30
Seminar  Dinner
September 10
09:30 - 11:00
Parallel  session 3
11:00 - 11:30
Coffee - Break
11:30 - 12:15
Daniela Reimer
What is a foster family?
12:15 - 12:30
Final closing  remarks
14:30 - 16:30
Post-Seminar Session

Open to seminar participants.
Free of charge, but registration is required using the registration form.
The session will be held in Portuguese.

Registration

Registration is open
until September 2, 2026.
Student
50€
Payment must be made
via bank transfer.
Lunch
Coffee breaks
Register
Student
75€
Payment must be made
via bank transfer.
Lunch
Coffee breaks
Seminar Dinner
Register
Researchers, teachers, and professionals
140€
Payment must be made
via bank transfer.
Lunch
Coffee breaks
Seminar Dinner
Register

Keynotes

Jorge Fernández del Valle

Prof. Fernández del Valle begun his professional career (1981) as a psychologist in child care services, including residential care, adoption and family intervention programs. Since 1989 he entered the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Oviedo (Spain), where he is currently full professor of psychosocial intervention and director of the Child and Family Research Group. As a researcher his main focus is on program evaluation and quality of child care services and he has made the first national research about evaluation of family foster care in Spain. He has also developed different tools for improving practice in residential child care, as well as the publication of the national Quality Standards of Residential care. He has published more than 100 peer reviewed articles and 15 books and he has participated in more than 70 research projects. He is member of several international research networks in the field of child welfare (EUSARF, INTRAC, TRC, etc.)

Daniela Reimer

Daniela Reimer is a Professor of Childhood, Youth and Family at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland, Department of Social Work. Her background is in social work and educational science. She has been involved in research on family foster care since 2006. In 2016, she received her PhD with a thesis on biographies of young people from foster care. The dissertation was awarded the German Child and Youth Welfare Prize. In her recent and current research her focus is on images of foster families, professional support for foster children and foster families, kinship care, prevention of sexual violence in care settings. In addition to her research, she is involved in the teaching and training of professionals in social work history and theory and various aspects of child welfare as well as child-friendly justice.

Committees

Organising Committee
Helena Carvalho
Paulo Delgado
Pedro Rodrigues
Ruth Sampaio
Sónia Teixeira
Susana Lopes
Vitor Oliveira
Scientific Committee
Ana Bertão
Escola Superior de Educação, Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Portugal

Carme Monteserrat
Universitat de Girona, Spain

Cinzia Canali
Emanuela Zancan Foundation, Italy

Daniela Reimer
Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland

Hélène Join Lambert
Université Paris Nanterre, France

Isabel Timóteo
inED, Escola Superior de Educação, Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Portugal

Jane Valente
Universidade Estadual de Campinas UNICAMP, Brasil

João Carvalho
Universidade Portucalense, Portugal

Johan Vanderfaeillie
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels

Núria Fuentes
University of Barcelona, Spain

Rachel Baptista
Tribunal de Justiça do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Sílvia Barros
inED, Escola Superior de Educação, Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Portugal

Promoting Entities

Partner Entities