Establishes Children’s House in Kirkenes

The Norwegian government has decided to establish a Children’s House in Kirkenes, Finnmark County. The location aims to provide the shortest possible travel distance for children using its services.

An official Children’s House is a house aiming at providing solid and coherent assistance to children and youth up to 18 years of age, as well as to adults with mental impairment, who are exposed to or witnesses to violence and/or sexual abuse. A Children’s House offers facilitated legal questioning, medical examination facilities, treatment and follow-up all under one roof.

The government has earlier decided to establish a Children’s House in Finnmark County and has now selected Kirkenes as its location, as that will provide the shortest possible travel distance for as many children as possible among those in need of the house’s services.

The Children’s House in Kirkenes will be staffed by employees from the State’s Children’s House in Tromsø, who will travel to Kirkenes on fixed days every week. This model has been adopted from Nordland County, where there are good experiences from staff in Bodø also operating the Children’s House in Mosjøen.

The schedule for opening the Children’s House in Kirkenes has not been fixed yet, however, the search for a suitable building and the recruiting of staff has already commenced.