Lumos

Overview
Headquarters: 
London, UK
Website: 
wearelumos.org
Size: 
51-200 employees
Founded: 
2005
Areas of Focus: 
Philanthropy / Grantmaking Foundation
Populations Served: 
Children and Youth
Disabled
About Us
Mission: 

Lumos is an international non-governmental, non-profit organization founded by J.K. Rowling to end the institutionalization of children by 2050. Its vision is a world in which all children have the opportunity to grow up and thrive in a safe and caring family or, where there is no alternative, in specialist placements that meet all their needs, respect their rights and ensure it can fulfill their potential.

Lumos works with the United Nations, international financial institutions, and the United States and other governments, focusing on international aid as a driver of reform. We also work with private donors to encourage them to make donations in ways that best support families to raise children. Lumos supports governments with expertise and skills, ranging from interventions to save the lives of children facing premature death to technical support on how to use complex financial mechanisms to ensure limited resources are used to achieve reform.

Programs: 

Lumos works around the world to help the millions of children in orphanages regain their right to a family.

While the reasons children end up in orphanages may differ, certain aspects remain the same. Extreme poverty is the main reason that most children end up in orphanages.

Our flexible model works by adapting to the cultural drivers of institutionalisation in every country that we work in. We use demonstration projects to enable the change needed to replace orphanages with community-based services. Governments in other areas can then replicate these. At present, we have programmes in Moldova, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Haiti.

Why Work For Us?: 

Since 2009, Lumos has prevented 20,915 children from entering harmful institutions. We work to keep families together and provide support for children within their communities.

To deliver this work, Lumos is seeking a professional researcher that will be responsible for leading and carrying out a US research agenda. Focusing on projects that may include identifying ways in which the United Nations is supporting orphanages around the world, and likewise identifying best practices that support family care; tracing funds coming from the US government that support the orphanage system abroad; investigating funding flows from religious communities that support orphanages through missionary work; or following funding practices of IFIs that support orphanages or alternative systems of care.

industry: 
Nonprofit