Description
In 2013, some 10,000 people benefited from family support allowance in Neamt County. Simultaneously, close to 7000 children were considered at risk mainly due to abuse, mistreatment, neglect and parents working abroad. The main objective of the project is to increase the capacity of local authorities to provide integrated services for children at risk and their families to prevent school of family abandonment. The project is providing an innovative service - integrated measures - destined for children in difficulty through establishing a centre in Targu Neamt City. Additionally, three community services will be provided in Targu Neamt City and the communes of Pipirig and Raucesti. 150 children out of which 25 Roma, will benefit from activities such as "school after school", education for health", "counselling, information and support for children and parents", all aimed at preventing school dropout and/or family abandonment and at improving school presence.
Summary of project results
The project was needed due to the concerning increase of cases of children at risk of school drop-out and/or family abandonment. The project proposed to supplement the range of social services addressed to children at risk from the town of Târgu Neamț and Pipirig and Rӑucești communes from Neamț County, and to adapt them to the identified needs by establishing a Regional Centre to mobilize the local resources for integrated services designated for the child in difficulty. The Centre coordinate the resources for community services established at local level (by the three community resources services for children and families in difficulty). These are innovative services at the level of Neamț County and aim to contribute to the social inclusion of the children at risk by involving marking members of the local communities.The main services provided to beneficiaries (150 children and 180 parent) through the established centres are: activities like "school after school" (education, literacy, monitoring, hot meals), tutoring for exams (mathematics, Romanian) activities for health education (children and parents were informed on topics of interest for conducting and maintaining personal hygiene and cleanliness, as well as of the environment), recreation and leisure activities (camps, trips, prizes, Christmas gifts, games, toys, celebration of the Children's Day), counselling and information for children and parents (counselling and support sessions and psychological counselling).The main long-term results are: increased awareness of local communities on children's rights; a pro-active attitude in solving social cases involving children at risk; reduced number of children who are not going to school or who have abandoned school; increased capacity of public authorities in assuming the problems of children in terms of professionalization of human resources (41 staff were trained) and in terms of developing the services according to the specific identified needs; increased number of services to prevent school drop-out / family abandonment, established at community level in order to bring the services closer to the beneficiaries (creation of three community resources services for children and families in difficulty).
Summary of bilateral results