Description
The project aims to curtail violation of human rights of parents and future parents, including specific groups of parents who are discriminated or endangered by discrimination in the labour market because of their parental role. The project reacts to insufficient support of parents on labor market and increasing number of discrimination cases. By providing advisory services and publishing a brochure for parents summarizing legislation with emphasis on discrimination the project will hit over 8000 people from the whole Czech Republic and the impact will exceed even the duration of the project. Through the whole project APERIO will cooperate with 2 experienced Norwegian NGOS: JURK offering legal counceling for women and Voksne for Barn, providing services for parents. This will lead to the transfer of know-how in counselling against discrimination from Norway to CZ. Another part of the project is an internal development of APERIO, that will contribute to the objectives of the project.
Summary of project results
The project reacts to unequal position of parents and to discriminatory practices the parents face on the labour market. The activities of the project reflected the fact that certain groups of the parents cannot afford to pay for comparable services available on the market; and that parents usually do not have sufficient information about their rights and options on the labour market and how to defend themselves against the discrimination. The aim of the project was to protect and strengthen human rights of the parents living in the Czech Republic, support their knowledge of the relevant legislation and to provide them practical tools for more effective defence against the discrimination they experience on the common basis. Achievement of these aims led to increased self-esteem of the parents, their active assertion on the labour market and better management of their parental role. During the project we implemented phone and personal social&legal counselling focused on the needs of the parents and on the frequent problematic situations. We started the pilot process in September 2015. In March 2016 we published a booklet for parents focused on the common situations concerning parenthood from the legislative point, summarizing main topics of the project; reflecting the most common problematic situations; and including case studies by our Norwegian partners. Cooperation with Norwegian partners helped us to set up the most suitable strategy for the project implementation. We have also organized trainings and supervision meetings for the project team to improve information & know-how sharing. Thanks to the project we have welcomed new specialists in our team and we have deepened our skills needed for more effective handling of our work tasks.
Summary of bilateral results
The cooperation with JURK was successful and a great benefit for launching new services for parents. JURK shared with APERIO their experience and best practices in attracting students – volunteers to work directly in services for parents. Based on this sharing we launched helpline and personal counseling, and prepared internal methodology for the helpline work. We shared with the JURK our experience with web-based counseling. The cooperation with VfB supported successful realization and completion of the project, and significantly influenced project target achievements. VfB shared with APERIO their experience and best practices with operating helpline. It had an impact on piloting the helpline that was launched within the project. We put in place functional client evidence systém to enable futher work with the outputs and development of the helpline.