Description
Many families are not able to provide harmonic and safe background to their children. These are the families, we want to support and empower them to create healthy environment, which will saturate all needs of their children. Family Group Conferencing (FGC), used in many countries around the world, is an innovative model used at work with families at risk. Almost 100 employees and trained fellow-workers of Smile as a Gift are engaged in social work with the families in all regions of Slovakia. The model they use at their work is FGC, which emphasizes responsibility of the family and its community for finding out solution of its own problems and mobilises internal potential of the family and community. The objective of the project is present the FGC model to public institutions and NGOs as an effective and successful instrument of family empowerment. The outcome of the project will be raised awareness on the FGC model use in case of endangered families with the goal to prevent removal of children from the family or to return the children to the family after successful reunification and stabilisation process. Project activities are aimed to foster an inevitable cooperation of key players in the process of family reunification and stabilisation (family-community-NGO-school-municipality-state) and to promote the use of FGC in family reunification and stabilisation using also experience and best practices from more experienced countries. Project outputs give space to present FGC model to key players, discuss conditions and possibilities of spreading FGC use in Slovakia (3 regional and one national conference) , upgrade FGC methodology and publish it (printed and online publication), as well as to create practical opportunities to apply the model and test cooperation of key players in families empowerment (3 regional seminars).
Summary of project results
The project responds to the long-term unfavourable situation of children in alternative care and endangered families in Slovakia with the increasing risk of separation of the child from the family. It is evident, that to provide the effective support to the endangered family, to prevent the separation of the child or to enable her return to the family, team, targeted and effective cooperation is needed not only with the family circle, but also with representatives of the government. The aim of the project was to present to the partners the innovative style of work with endangered children and their families called Family Group Conferences (FGC), which emphasizes responsibility of the family and its community for finding out solution of its own problems and mobilises internal potential of the family and community, as well as to present the experience with using FGC abroad and in Slovakia and thereby to create demand to use FGC with the goal to enforce the model as a key instrument in work with the endangered family. Project activities have created opportunities to present the model to the key players, to discuss the prerequisites and possibilities of significant spread of FGC in Slovakia and to prepare the upgrade of FGC methodology and to publish it. The outputs of the project were 3 regional and 1 national conference and 3 expert seminars (with more than 1200 participants in total), attended by professionals and managers from the field of social work with the family, and new FGC methodology, which will be used by Smile as a Gift´s FGC coordinators. The main outcome of the project is the increased awareness of the target groups of FGC model as an effective instrument of work with the endangered family and of the right of the family to play an active role in the process of searching the solutions in case of imminent intervention of the government in the family. The FGC model has become the key instrument for Smile as a Gift in work with the endangered family. Based on the experience with FGC in Slovakia, Smile as a Gift is highly motivated to enforce the FGC to the national legislation not only as an instrument of work with the family, but also as the right of the family to play an active role in the process of searching the solutions in case of imminent intervention of the government in the family.
Summary of bilateral results