Social assistance in the families with children threatened by social exclusion in the city of Ostrava CONTACT: Rolnická 55, 709 00 Ostrava – Nová Ves Tel:

Social assistance in the families

with children threatened by social

exclusion in the city of Ostrava

CONTACT:Rolnická 55, 709 00 Ostrava – Nová Ves

Tel: 596 611 804, 736 757 533E-mail: [email protected]

the house service (services, which are provided to individuals in their natural

social environment (§ 33 paragraph 4)

social prevention services (help to prevent social exclusion of the persons, who

are threatened by such danger, the aim of the social prevention services is to help

individuals to get over their unfavourable situation and protect society from

emergence and spreading of undesirable social phenomena (§ 32 letter c)

social activation services for families with children (§ 65)

It is a service provided to a family with a child, whose development is threatened by

impact of long-term crisis social situation, that parents are not able to overcome

themselves without any help, and whose development is also threatened by other

dangers.

The service definition according to the law no. The service definition according to the law no. 108/2006 Sb., about social services 108/2006 Sb., about social services

Basic information about the service Basic information about the service

2004 beginning of the service

the establishment of the service is connected with the aim

of the community plan of the City of Ostrava: to decrease

overwork of OSPOD social workers

the service provider is the advisory centre ELPIS Ostrava –

advisory centre for the victims of violence, mistreat and

abuse (they were meeting still higher number of clients, who

needed social assistance, in that time there was missing

certain “middleman” between OSPOD workers and the

family)

service coordinator, two social workers

2006 Mateřské centrum Rodinka (Mother centre

Rodinka) becomes the operator of social assistance the service

widens and that is the reason for the increased umber of social

workers

2007 joined the project SROP “Hope for the family”, which

significantly helped to make the service independent

register the service as social activation service for

families with children

the service´s activities have increased by regular

organized leisure time activities and trips for families

2009 joining the project “Support and development of the

services of social prevention in Moravian-Silesian

region”

The chart shows number of families in the The chart shows number of families in the period from 2005 to 2OO8period from 2005 to 2OO8

Direct care workers: project manager (the head of the service) 4 social workers/ assistants

contract of services – supervisor

part-time job: the head of the area, economist, accountant

Personal provision of the service Personal provision of the service

Role of Social assistance Ostrava Role of Social assistance Ostrava

The service of social assistance supports parents with children from the city of Ostrava and surrounding districts during coping with long-term unfavourable life situation. The service mission is with the help of regular visits in the family to support them in solving the problems and search possibilities of improvement according to the family´s ideas and wishes.

The service workers pursue to increase self-sufficiency of the families.

The target group The target group family/parent with a child/children age 0 – 15 from

the city of Ostrava and near surrounding districts in difficult situation

  families in need (the danger of taking a child away, behaviour

problems of the child, problems with housing, indebtedness, etc.) persons, to whom children have been consigned, including foster

parents parent/s, who are expecting a baby families, who ask the service for support in the time of comeback of

their children from the institutional care facility persons who ask for one-time advise on the problem in question

Most services of social assistants are used by the families with children, over who is executed control of OSPOD social workers of the individual authorities of Ostrava districts.  

Aims of the service Aims of the service

to secure independent functioning of the family (independence

from the help of workers of social assistance, decrease of dependence on

financial help of the state, accepting responsibility of the members of the

family for their actions, reaching a state, when the client puts some effort

into solving the problem situation independently),

to support the family in the care of their own household and

joining the society (to teach family to manage with money, to plan the

time, teach the mother or other members of the family to cook cheaply, tidy

up, clean, wash up, iron, find interest groups for children, job, attendance

of kindergarten, mother centre, visits of the playground in the surrounding

area, spending free time the whole family together),

by strengthening parents’ abilities to prevent useless

placing of the child from the family into the institutional

care facilities (to improve communication between parents and

children - to be able to listen, not to ignore, empathise with the child

´s needs, not to act in aggressive way, be able to act with child as

with a child, not to speak vulgarisms in front of the children, speak

together about what happened at school, what are their problems,

what did they experienced with their friends, the care of the mental,

emotional and physical aspects of the children’s personality – to give

them food, prepare things to school, securing adequate housing

conditions, monitoring homework, to secure enough stimulations for

child´s development, to create rituals for example reading before

going to sleep, dinning together, strengthening of hygienic habits -

cleaning teeth, washing)

through the educational impact of social assistant onto the

family and the help to the child with school preparations, to

contribute to improvement of the child´s school results (to teach

parents to learn with child, regular school attendance (excusing absence),

teach parents to check homework, mediate contact with another

organization, which secures tutor classes)

through leisure time activities teach parents to spend their free

time with their children, straighten relationships between them

and prevent passive way of children´s lives (through trips with

social assistance workers to show parent the possibilities how to spend

their free time with children, interest groups for children, common games of

parents and children, spending leisure time in different way than just in front

of the TV or the computer)

The course of cooperation with the family The course of cooperation with the family

1. Making a contact

2. Mapping of situation

3. Formulation of order

4. Service planning

5. Plan of realization

6. Finishing of the cooperation and evaluation

of the results together with the family

Making a contact and mapping of situatiMaking a contact and mapping of situationon the interested person contacts the service him/herself the service is recommended by a close person (relative,

neighbour, service user) the service is recommended by other no profitable organization or

service service is recommended by a state institution (mostly by the

organ of social law protection of children, curator)

contact with the person interested in service, most often in his/her natural environment (the first sitting takes place in the presence of service manager and social worker, the potential client is informed about the service and the present workers are informed about the person’s requirements for services)

creation of relationship based on trust, security, honesty – the possibility to inform social worker about the family situation

discussing personal expectations, requirements, goals

Formulation of the order and service Formulation of the order and service planningplanning

users own image about situation solution is confronted with the social worker offer

it comes to formulation of the user order with support of social worker

conclusion of contract about cooperation (preceded by informing about rights and responsibilities, the form of the contract is written or oral, it is possible to keep the user in anonymity)

individual plan of cooperation (the plan of gradual reaching the goals set by user with support of social worker in certain time horizon – reaching individual goals motivates the user to solve the situation), continuous redefining of the goals

extent: approximately 1-3 meetings

Plan of realizationPlan of realization

during the cooperation voluntary but active participation of the family on solving of their own situation is stressed

providing basic consulting in the given area (providing information, recommendation, support with communication with authorities, possible employers, school, doctors, mediation of specific or legal counselling, etc.)

regular visits in the family (training of skills, help with children´s preparation for school, strengthening of parents´ competences, support and strengthening of natural net of relations of client, evaluation of the situation development)

accompaniment of the client (mediation of communication between family and authorities, support with enforcement of rights and interests of the client, integration of the client into society)

multidiscipline cooperation on behalf of the client (e.g. OSPOD, school, doctors, authorities, other services, etc.)

quality leisure time spending (trips and free time activities – important as prevention of problem behaviour of children or its repeating, parents spend their free time together with their children, they have common positive experiences – creation or renewal of relationships in the family)

  worker´s flexibility in respect to the family situation

development

Finishing of the cooperation and evaluation of Finishing of the cooperation and evaluation of the results together with the family the results together with the family

User situation solution requires sufficient time and intensity of cooperation.

gradual limitation of contact with family (towards the end of the cooperation the visits of the user has longer time periods between them, user contacts the social worker him/herself in the case of need)

monitoring of independent functioning (visits are sporadic, phone contact with the family)

evaluation of the cooperation with the family (in the course of cooperation the evaluation of individual plans takes place, social worker writes monthly reports about cooperation with the family, and at the end the final report, further the method of observation and dialogue is applied, the users fill in evaluation questionnaire)

finishing of cooperation (the family is always informed about the possibility to contact the service in the case of need)

City district Ostrava – Jih, City district Ostrava – Poruba

European social fond in the Czech Republic and by the Czech Republic government

Thank you for your kind attention.

Bc. Nikola Šimíková, project manager

Social assistance in the families with children threatened by social exclusion in the city of OstravaRolnická 55, 709 00 Ostrava – Nová VesTel: 596 611 804, 736 757 533E-mail:[email protected]