J.K. Rowling established the children’s-rights charity Lumos in 2005.
The organization was originally founded as the Children’s High Level Group after Rowling became involved in campaigning about children living in institutions. It was renamed Lumos in 2010. The name refers to a light-producing spell in the Harry Potter books and reflects the charity’s aim of bringing children out of institutional care and into family-based settings.
Lumos works internationally on reforming systems that separate children from families. Its work has included advocacy, research, and support for family care, foster care, adoption, and community services. The organization argues that large residential institutions can harm children’s development and should not be treated as the default form of care.
Lumos is separate from Rowling’s charitable trust, Volant Charitable Trust. The two are therefore easy to conflate, but Lumos is the organization specifically associated with ending the institutionalization of children.