Listening to the child: Lessons from Estonia’s ‘Out of the Circle’ restorative practice model

This practice paper draws on focus group interviews with Estonian child protection professionals implementing the Out of the Circle model, a restorative, trauma-informed, and child-centred approach to working with at-risk youth. The findings indicate that the model enhances meaningful youth participation by shifting young people’s role from passive recipients to active partners in decision-making, particularly through co-creation of personal plans and trusted-adult relationships. It also strengthens interprofessional collaboration by clarifying roles, improving communication, and fostering shared responsibility across sectors. However, implementation is constrained by limited time, uneven institutional support and inconsistent network engagement. These findings offer transferable insights for international child protection systems seeking more participatory and integrated responses to complex youth cases.