Description
„Children of Prisoners – The Invisible Children” is the title of a project aiming to develop services for children with imprisoned parents from Iasi and Vaslui counties. The project, as a continuation of a pilot intervention in Romania, will offer social services to 50 children in the two targeted areas. As well, the project will continue to develop activities aiming to inform and to raise public awareness with regards to the problems faced by these children using www.copiiinvizibili.alternativesociale.ro. It will also involve members of the communities within two round table activities where members of the press will also be invited. The organizational development is included in this project with a process of short and medium term strategic planning for Alternative Sociale.
Summary of project results
Children of prisoners represent a category of vulnerable people that is invisible for social services in Romania (Jones et al., 2013). Alternative Sociale started to work with these children in 2013 in Iasi County. Experience showed that in order to help the children facing difficulties related to parental imprisonment and to fight the people’s perception “Like father, like son”, the organisation needs to continue and extend its work throughout Romania. Therefore, by extending social services in Vaslui County, continuing to provide services in Iasi County, working with local authorities, and raising awareness using online tools, the project contributed to the development of social services for children with imprisoned parents. 63 children have received social services and over 20 local representatives were involved in two round tables discussing the difficulties faced by the children and possible solutions. The round tables triggered increased awareness on issues faced by the children of prisoners and solutions were proposed by the participants for the improvement of these children's lives (providing a school bus for children to visit their imprisoned parents, identifying families of prisoners by family doctors, offering emotional support by school counsellors etc.). The direct services delivered to children of prisoners produced visible changes in their lives. Children with medical conditions (i.e. anaemia, respiratory insufficiency etc.) benefited, after acknowledging the medical problems, from mediation in relation with specialised medical offices and hospitals. Children experiencing emotional problems (feelings of abandonment, anger towards parents and/or authorities, stigma, feelings of guilt etc.) benefitted of counselling, as well as their carers, which were informed by the risks children are exposed to due to poor parental supervision and support. Approximately 30,000 people reached through social media and the website is a proof that more and more people learn about the children of prisoners and the problems they face, as well as how these can be avoided (interviews with stakeholders, non-imprisoned parents and children of prisoners, and recommendations from professionals working with children and for families of prisoners were read; the Facebook campaign “My parent is imprisoned. Why do you sentence me for his crime?” was created). Following a strategic planning process, a medium and long term strategy of the association was adopted.
Summary of bilateral results