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Description
Mother centers associated in Síť pro rodinu (The Family Network) are grassroots, self-organized communities, supporting parents and families on a daily basis, bring them into center stage and support their ability to help themselves and each other. They have an positive impact on many levels: from contributing to social cohesion and integration in communities to bringing a grassroots voice to local governance. In the long term, centers are being established and run on the basis of the enthusiasm and volunteering of individuals. Thus, there is a need to develop capacities across organizational, technical and financial management. The project therefore focuses on capacity building of mother center employees and volunteers in the form of an educational program. Based on the needs analysis, an educational plan will be created for 24 centers across the Czech Republic whereas priority will be given to centers from structurally disadvantaged areas. In the form of individual mentoring, consultations, thematic workshops, seminars and internships, the Mother Centers ‘management will be professionalized, their organizational transparency will be supported and existential stability will be strengthened.
Summary of project results
Maternity centres serve as "incubators" of community life across regions, united by the intention to create an open and safe space for sharing and self-help family activities. They create a catchment "network" for early detection of family risk phenomena, offering outreach, support and relief activities as a tool for assistance. However, in the long term, these organisations face insufficient professional, staff and financial capacity. Most of the time they are founded and run on the basis of enthusiasm and volunteerism of individuals who are not comprehensively equipped with professional competences. In terms of opportunities for development and professionalisation, the centres do not lack motivation and enthusiasm. The problem is the financial and time capacity to enable managers and staff to focus on the professionalization process in a systematic way. If a maternity centre in a village ceases to exist, the broad parental or family community around the MC breaks up. The preventive services that the centres provide are missing, the space for meeting and sharing is disappearing, and opportunities for leisure activities for families and childcare services are significantly eliminated.
The aim of the project was to enable member organisations to focus on their own development and professionalisation, based on an individual needs analysis. The maternity centres themselves chose which areas they wanted to focus on for further development. In collaboration with the project team, detailed needs analyses were created, which resulted in an individual development plan set out in accordance with the specific areas the centre needed to focus on within the training programme. Individual mentoring and consultation with subject matter experts, workshops, seminars and internships were the tools used to implement the required changes
Based on feedback from MCs during the final meetings, the project helped the parent centres to start the change process. During the inception phase needs analyses and development plans were developed and staff subsequently attended mentoring, workshops, seminars and internships. The most common impacts according to feedback were: - Defining what we want our RC to be, what we want to invest our energy in. - Financial planning. - Distribution of competencies. - At least a partial idea of fundraising. - Willingness not to pack it in and persevere in the effort.