Dorothy Muraya Neriah (PhD student)

Thesis title: Exploring Fostering Recruitment in England as a link to Permanence and Stability in Foster Care

Biography

Background

Dorothy has an undegraduate degree attained from USIU Africa in Kenya. She then went on to complete her MSc in Childhood Studies at the University of Edinburgh. She has over 15 years' experience working with children, which started with her teaching children's classes at the age of 12. She has since served children in different capacities as a teacher, camp counselor, social worker, play therapist, trauma counselor, program director and event coordinator. Most notably she has worked with International Justice Mission in Kenya where she worked with child victims of child abuse. This influenced her master's research on aftercare services for child victims of sex trafficking which is now a published journal article. Since completing her masters degree, she has spent three years in Kenya running different child interventions for children including a literacy camp and after school program in a slum, being on the directory board for a school for children displaced internally by conflict, and most notably, running the Kenyan chapter of Safe Families for Children. This led to her interest in care services for children and her current thesis topic focusing on family based care in the UK. Dorothy also has gained experience in event management and has excellent MC skills, having led gatherings with over 2000 attendees. She is an incredible orator and was a guest speaker at the TearFund conference in Jinja, Uganda , 2016. 

In her current work on the recruitment of foster carers, Dorothy has developed a Three-Phase Model for recruitment. This model aims to help recruiters to strategise their recruitment thus helping them better distribute and maximise their resources. Dorothy is passionate about making knowledge more accessible and she thus engages in various activities to engage practitioners in conversations throughout the research process. 

Research summary

Foster Carer Recruitment,  Alernative Care for Children, Foster Care, Kinship Care, Small Group Residential Care, Aftercare for Child Trafficking Victims, Alternative Care for Migrant Children, Alternative Care for Refugee Children, Non-profit Marketing, Charity Volunteer Recruitment

Current research interests

Non profit marketing, Foster Carer Recruitment, Social Marketing, Child protection, Methods involving Systematic Reviews, Content Analysis, and innovative online methods

Past research interests

Child Trafficking, Aftercare for victims of child trafficking ,

Knowledge exchange

Fostering Recruitment Insights. 

Fostering Recruitment Insights is my primary means of disseminating my current research to recruiters. This is primarily done through a website and newsletter but also includes an Instagram account. I also engage recruiters on email, offering advise and consultations and workshops with larger recruitement teams. 

Affiliated research centres

Invited speaker

Africa Children's Prayer Day 2015

TearFund Gathering 2016

Childhood Studies Jamboree 2019 

 

Organiser

Africa Children's Prayer Day 2015, 2016

Viral Conference 2015

Edge Conference 2016

Interweaving Conference at Moray House School of Education, The University of Edinburgh

Participant

Interweaving Conference at Moray House School of Education, The University of Edinburgh

Current Research:

 

 https://fosteringri.com/  

 

https://www.iriss.org.uk/news/features/2019/11/26/rethinking-foster-carer-recruitment

 

https://podcast.iriss.org.uk/foster-carer-recruitment

Publications:

Neriah, D. (2019). Kenya. In K. Wells (Ed.), Teen Lives around the World A Global Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zmQkxAEACAAJ

 

Muraya, D. N., & Fry, D. (2015). Aftercare Services for Child Victims of Sex Trafficking: A Systematic Review of Policy and Practice. Trauma, Violence, and Abuse, 17(2), 204–220. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838015584356

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