Anouk Goemans receives National Youth Care Award 2025
Professor by Special Appointment Anouk Goemans has received the National Youth Care Award 2025 from the ‘Stichting Steunfonds Pro Juventute’. The cash prize of €30,000 will go towards her research on youth care and youth protection.
Goemans was presented with the award at her inaugural lecture on 16 January. On this day, she was officially appointed Professor by Special Appointment of Youth Services and Child Protection from a Child Studies and Legal Perspective. Her chair is funded by the Pro Juventute support fund foundation (at the Leiden University Fund).
Every two years, Pro Juventute also presents the National Youth Care Award, given to promising projects and initiatives that support children. Pro Juventute expressed its appreciation that Goemans 'connects research and practice with the aim of supporting children in vulnerable families as far as possible'. Professor Goemans conducts her research in close collaboration with various professional organisations, as well as colleagues from from the Department of Child Law and Health Law and Education and Child Studies.
The cash prize of €30,000 euros will support Goemans in her research on various themes related to youth care and youth protection. Goemans: 'For example, research on perspective determination, research on the voice of the child in out-of-home placement decisions, and decision-making about contact after out-of-home placement [link]. All these projects aim to gather more knowledge and thus do justice to children and families in youth protection.'