Protection for
Rights of Children
and Adolescents

Protection for the Rights of Children and Adolescents.

 Four units of service (4) – total 66 participants -Presence nationwide, two regions (2) – Average age 15 – 45% are women – 92% are Chilean.

Hogar de Cristo operates four (4) specialized residential care facilities designed to help children and adolescents aged 12 to 18 return to a family-like environment. These youth have experienced severe rights violations and are currently under Estate protection. The facilities aim to ensure a high quality of life by guaranteeing the youth’s physical and emotional safety and meeting their comprehensive developmental needs.

Our residences serve as specialized intervention settings. They meet high-quality standards and are designed for the most extreme and complex cases of rights violations.

The goal is to keep stays as brief as possible, with stays serving as transitional interventions.

Two residences are in the Santiago Metropolitan Region—one for boys and one for girls—while a third, for boys, is in La Serena, Coquimbo Region. These facilities currently serve 66 adolescents, with an average age of 15.

87% of children and adolescents in residential care live in poverty. Among the homeless population, 25% have a history of institutionalization—meaning they have previously been in state protection services. Furthermore, half of the individuals currently incarcerated in Chilean prisons spent time in the former *Sename* (National Service for Minors) system.

Residential care should focus on young people who truly need it. As the law mandates, residential placement should be a last resort. International evidence indicates that residential care is appropriate only for a specific group of children and adolescents—those who require specialized interventions or for whom family reunification or placement with foster families is not possible. It is estimated that nearly 50% of the children and adolescents currently in residential alternative care should instead live with their own families or with foster families.