ACTIVITIES

• Implementation of children s rights in foster families
• Supervision of foster parents (2006-2008)
• Training of experts, professionals and foster parents in the area of foster care in the Republic of Croatia (2003-2006)
• Support to foster parents of children without adequate parental care in Vrbovec area (2002-2004)
• Unaccompanied children in exile (uce) (1993-2001) and Foster care for unaccompanied children in exile (1994-1998)

Project activities are implemented in 2010 in the area of special state concern,in the towns in Eastern Slavonia,Vukovar and Vinkovci.The consequences of the physical destruction from the last war are still visible in the area of special state concern,particularly in the town of Vukovar,but even heavier and more painfull are the long lasting consequences on mental health affecting people in the area.One of the most vulnerable groups of affected population are children without adequate parental care in need of out of home care and protection,children who are placed in foster families.

The general goal of the project "Implementation of children s rights in foster families" is upgrading of quality of services in foster families,ensuring the adequate support and services to care providers-seocial workers in social service in Vukovar and Vinkovci and to direct care providers -to foster parents.

The project activities,seeking to upgrade quality of services to children placed in foster families in the area of Vukovar and Vinkovci are as follows:

• education of social workers in social services-Vukovar and Vinkovci
• education and
• supervizion od foster parents

The named activities are seeking to ensure upgrading of personal capacities and competencies of care providers.The educational and supervision activities are providing new knowledge and new skills to care providers in the area of foster care,and in the area of child s rights-UN Convention on the Rights of the Child-art.2-ensuring implementationof non discrimination principle;art.3-ensuring implementation of the best ineterests of the child;art.8 ensuring the right of the child to identity and antionality;art.12-ensuring the right of the child to express freely its own views;art.20- ensuring the right of the child without adequate parental care to special care and protection etc.

Centre for Social Policy Initiatives is implementing the two-year project "Supervision of Foster Parents", with the purpose of upgrading the professional support to foster parents in the Republic of Croatia. The project is implemented in cooperation with the University of Göteborg and Croatian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.
The main part of the project is two-year education in the field of supervision of foster parents. Theparticipants of the education are thirty professionals from local social services from 14 Croatian counties, School of Social Work, Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation - Department for Behaviuoral Problems and an NGO. While actively participating in eight three-days long seminars covering important theoretical and practical topics in the field of this specific form of support to foster parents, the participants also independently lead group supervisions of foster parents, participate in the supervision of their own work, and write and present their final essay.
The project "Supervision of Foster Parents" involves 30 professionals and more than 150 foster parents in 14 Croatian counties.

Download PDF: "Supervision of foster parents" - Curriculum

Centre for Social Policy Initiatives implemented the three-year project of training of experts, professionals and foster parents in Croatia. The project was implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the University of Zagreb, and the University of Göteborg.

Swedish experts and professionals from the University of Göteborg, local social services in Lärijendolen and 2 private agencies for the professional support to foster parents shared their knowledge and experience in Swedish model of foster care, and contributed to the adaptation of Swedish good practice to the Croatian conditions and the existing practice.

The project "Training of experts, professionals and foster parents in the area of foster care in the Republic of Croatia" connected the conceptual level - the University of Zagreb and the University of Göteborg, the decision-making level - Croatian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and Swedish National Agency for Social Policy, and the level of professional practice - local social services in Croatia and local social services Göteborg, and NGOs in Croatia (CSPI) and Swedish private agencies from Falköpinga and Stockholm. The goal of the project was the establishment of new quality and the new model of foster care in Croatia.

The results of the project activities:

• 15 experts educated in the area of foster care (and received the certificates from the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and Centre for Social Policy Initiatives)
• 150 educated professionals from social services in Croatia
• 50 educated foster parents
• created and printed 2 manuals Foster care: care of children outside their family - Manual for education of professionals (2005) and Manual for education of foster parents (2006)
• questionnaire for the selection of foster parents

The goal of the project was providing the professional support to foster parents in Vrbovec area when their local social services still did not have the professional team for the support to foster care.

In cooperation with local social services and Caritas, CSPI, using a structured questionnaire, assessed the needs of foster families in Vrbovec area and utvrđene su the priority unmet needs of foster parents. Based on the analysis of the information collected from foster families, CSPI made the assessment of the situation of foster care in Vrbovec area, the assessment of the priority needs of foster children and foster parents, and planned and implemented appropriate activities.

At the peak of war hostilities in B&H a group of professionals involved in social welfare, psychology, and human rights started the project "Unaccompanied Children in Exile" as a NGO initiative. Developed were the necessary instruments, methodology and strategies for identification, registration and documentation of unaccompanied children in exile (UCE) focusing on tracing and reunification activities. The program was implemented in Croatia and a 12 European countries, as well as in Turkey, Malaysia and Pakistan.

The project responded to the number of unmet needs of these children, and complemented the system of legal and social protection of unaccompanied children in exile. The project registered and documented unaccompanied children and assisted in the selection of legal representatives for the most of the unaccompanied children in exile in Croatia. Aiming to reduce as much as possible the period of family separation, and to meet the best interest of the child and ensure the right of the child to a family, name and ethnicity, the project facilitated tracing of missing family members, and performed family reunification of the unaccompanied minors with their parents and other family members.

Since 1993 the project achieved the following:

• 5000 identified and registered children in numerous countries of exile
• 1600 identified and registered internally displaced children in B&H Federation, as UNICEF implementing partner in 1995/96
• 700 reunifications of unaccompanied children with their parents and other family members
• 615 re-established contacts between children and parents
• developed monitoring instruments
• developed guidelines on legal and social protection of unaccompanied children and
• organised numerous workshops on different issues concerning the UCE

Since unaccompanied children in exile were not included in the governmental foster care, CSPI, in ccoperation with UNHCR, organised Foster Care Program for Unaccompanied Refugee Children. By that initiative CSPI was assisting not only children, but also the already burdened social welfare system, thus advocating and promoting foster care as an alternative to institutional care in Croatia.

CSPI developed three types of foster care for unaccompanied children in exile:

Transit foster care was organised for unaccompanied children in exile that were on their way to reunification with parents or other family members and had to wait for their documents to be finalised (passports, visas, etc.). Their stay ranged from 2 weeks to a couple of months in a family that was ready to accept children for shorter periods. The program provided financial assistance as well as psychosocial support for children.

Foster Care Program, as a longer-term solution, served the most vulnerable among the unaccompanied refugee children. Special attention was paid to regular visits to foster families in order to assist children in the local community integration and to provide assistance and support to foster parents. Support was also provided to children and foster parents in the decision-making process related to repatriation or family reunification. Support groups for foster parents were also organised.

Specialised foster care placement for severely sick unaccompanied children (oncology cases, heart diseases, kidney failure and etc.). A number of severely sick unaccompanied children, transported from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Zagreb in order to receive medical treatment, were placed in specialised foster care for out of hospital treatment.