Lumos is the charity founded by J.K. Rowling that campaigns to end institutional care for children.
Rowling established the organization in 2005 as the Children’s High Level Group with the European Parliament member Emma Nicholson. Its work focused on children separated from their families and living in institutions or other forms of harmful residential care.
The organization was renamed Lumos in 2010. The name refers to the light-producing spell in the Harry Potter books, while also suggesting the charity’s aim of bringing children out of obscurity and into family-based care.
Lumos advocates for family support, foster care, adoption and community services as alternatives to large institutions. Its work is separate from Rowling’s fictional writing, although the charity’s name uses a term from the wizarding world. This is why Lumos is sometimes mistaken for a Harry Potter-related organization rather than a real child-welfare charity.