With support from the EEA and Norway Grants, the children's home in Košická Nová Ves has moved to new premises in order to provide care for the children in a more residential setting. Extensive renovation works are ongoing, and the new home will be officially opened in November 2009.
Since the 1980s, the children's home has been located in a former local primary school, where the children stayed in large, dormitory style rooms. Attempts at providing the children with a better suited environment have been ongoing since 2001, and with the last block of funding granted from the EEA and Norway Grants, the children can now enjoy privacy and space in a more homely environment.
A group of 14 children will live together with social workers in the new home, which consists of residental houses and flats. According to Anna Mazágová and Júlia Kostolná, who work at the home, the aim of the children's home is to make the children better prepared for the practical challenges of an independent life outside the institution, as well as securing their integration into social and family life. The children's home will be organised into small groups where the children live together with carers. This way, the children will live in a home environment that is more like a traditional family than what they have experienced previously.
In Košice, many of the children in public care belong to the Roma minority group. As a group the Roma are poorly integrated into Slovak society, and many suffer from a number of social problems. At the children's home in Košická Nová Ves, Roma children who cannot live safely with their parents are given the opportunity to grow up in a caring environment.