Description
Lithuanian society substantially lacks information and awareness of child aid mechanisms and damaging effects of institutionalization, as well as has little knowledge about provision and benefit of complex community-based services. This leads to a negative attitude towards families at risk and foster children, low involvement into policy making processes concerning child rights and social services, as well as non-willingness to engage in community-based services for children without parental care. Project aims at raising society awareness on transition from institutional child care to the provision of community-based services and enabling society to provide such services to children in need. This will be achieved by organizing informational and consultation events (workshops, seminars, roundtable discussions) to various stakeholders (NGOs, state and municipal authorities, community, 200 persons) about the need and benefit of deinstitutionalization, creating model of provision of community-based complex aid mechanism and testing it in Varena Municipality. Beneficiaries: vulnerable children and their families, community of Varena district
Summary of project results
The major problems addressed by the Project were insufficient community awareness about help for child, damaging effects of institutionalization and low involvement in provision of complex community-based services; together with qualitative and quantitative lack of complex services for child and his family and undeveloped mechanism of their effective provision. Major project activities: comparative analysis on children rights implementation level in different care settings, both family and institutional care (765 interviews with children in care and 48 interviews with foster careers and child protection specialists in 26 different regions in Lithuania); public awareness raising events on benefits and challenges of transition to community-based complex services (5 seminars, 10 round-table discussions, 5 cycles of trainings, 3 capacity building workshops, concluding conference); social documentary film on negative institutionalization effects “Playing Home”; developed module of complex community-based services provision mechanism (comprising a cycle of biological families strengthening, professional and family-based care as well as leaving care) and practically applied in Varena district municipality. Direct social services for vulnerable groups comprised of individual consultations, self-help groups, social and life skills trainings, special attention paid to parenting skills trainings for social risk families and vocational orientation for care leavers. Project promoter has achieved the following results: 424 people from various groups of society attended focused consultation and information events on the need to end institutional care. 1 NGO engaged in activities in partnership with local authorities and state institutions, including number of established civil dialogue mechanisms. 281 persons (196 children, 85 adults) received new basic and welfare services in disadvantaged region (Varena). 54 individuals had increased access to social services better suited for their needs.
Summary of bilateral results
The donor partner Oslo Sanitetsforening BRUSETKOLLEN professionaly contributed with its know-how of provision of community-based services, Norwegian child care system and benefits of deinstitutionalisation for children and society. Representatives from the partner organisation contributed significantly in 2 awareness raising seminars for state and municipal authorities and NGOs in Vilnius and Varena in December, 2013. They introduced good practice in provision of services and examples of organisation of community-based social services in Norway for 56 participants. In March, 2015 the experts from Brusetkollen returned to Vilnius to the final concluding conference “Child’s Right to Quality Care” for state and municipal authorities (165 participants) and presented a topic on responding to the best interests of children by mobilising community capacities. The mentioned activities contributed in achieving the outcome in the area of democracy and good governance with the outputs of local communities mobilized for active citizenship and their participatory role strengthened on a grassroots level. The main benefit of having this particular bilateral partnership with experienced Norwegian experts is that Lithuania is a newcomer in the area of community-based services, and essentially needed foreign expertise and assistance related to proving the fact that large residential institutions inevitably violate rights of the child and investing in children is not waste of money, but investment for a happy childhood.