The Project
Every community shapes how children and adolescents see their place in the world and the future they can imagine. Communities educate and protect: they listen, support, build trust and create safe spaces for participation.
Tratu on+ was created to strengthen this collective capacity to care.
We are a European project driven by social organisations, public institutions and academic institutions working together to promote safeguarding, wellbeing, and the rights of children and adolescents. We connect knowledge, social innovation, the participation of children and adolescents, and public policies.
Through pilot projects in the Basque Country, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, as well as training programmes and practical tools, we experiment, learn and improve coordination among stakeholders to create truly protective environments. We test, adapt and evaluate approaches to transform positive care into a structured, replicable and scalable practice.
We build on existing experiences and the commitment of local actors. Our role is to activate this potential and contribute to more coherent and better-prepared communities that can support children and adolescents in their development and participation through a comprehensive approach to protection and wellbeing.
Children's rights are not an abstract declaration: they are either upheld or violated in everyday life. When those rights are genuinely guaranteed, something deeper than protection happens: children and adolescents are safe, treated with dignity, and given real opportunities to thrive.
Thematic Areas and Objectives
Tratu on+ works to strengthen the ecosystems of positive care and protection that support children and adolescents in their development, wellbeing and participation.
The idea is simple: protection is a shared responsibility. The project is built around three cross-cutting pillars:
- Community-based approach
- Active participation of children and adolescents
- Emotional wellbeing
Based on these pillars, the project is structured around six main objectives:
- Strengthen capacities
Promote training and shared learning so that professionals, organisations and institutions have the knowledge and tools needed to foster positive care and protection. - Develop and test collaborative models
Implement pilot experiences that allow methodologies to be adapted, tested and validated in different contexts. - Create transferable tools
Develop practical, evidence-based resources that can be replicated and adapted in other territories. - Support the effective implementation of policies
Bridge legal frameworks and public policies with everyday practice, strengthening coordination and prevention mechanisms. - Promote a culture of positive care
Encourage a collective mindset that places children and adolescents at the centre of community life and social relationships. - Generate knowledge and evaluate impact
Systematise learning and produce evidence that helps improve and scale child protection systems across Europe.
Across all these objectives lies a shared conviction: the wellbeing of children and adolescents depends not only on specialised services and resources, but also on a society’s capacity to build strong, caring and connected communities.
Journey
Tratu on+ is designed as a collaborative and dynamic process.
Protecting children and adolescents is not a one-off intervention; it is the outcome of a system that listens, experiments, validates and continuously learns.
The working model we propose combines governance, local action, evaluation and knowledge transfer to ensure strategic coherence and a strong European perspective throughout every stage of the project.
Each dimension serves a specific purpose, yet all are part of the same ecosystem, aimed at generating evidence and recommendations that strengthen real, sustainable and protective environments for children and adolescents.
Partners
Tratu on+ brings together social organisations, public institutions, professionals and academic partners who share a common conviction: creating protective environments for children and adolescents requires collaboration and shared knowledge.
The project builds on previous work. Since 2021, EDE Foundation and Bidegintza have been developing initiatives focused on positive care and protection —“tratu on” means “safeguarding” in Basque. Today, that experience is being expanded within a European framework.
The strength of the current European project lies in both the scope and the complementarity of the organisations involved. Together, we bring expertise in areas such as child protection, social innovation, research, communication, community participation and public policy.
This diversity enables us to combine local action, scientific evidence and institutional validation, facilitating the transfer and adaptation of the model across different European contexts.
More than a consortium of organisations, Tratu on+ operates as a network of capacities and expertise dedicated to generating meaningful and sustainable impact.
You can learn more about each partner organisation through their respective websites.
Collaborators
Tratu on+ is supported by organisations, institutions and professionals who contribute to strengthening the project across different fields of expertise and territories.
This space recognises those who, through their practice, guidance and involvement in our pilot projects, help expand and enrich the development of the model.
