Closing Conference to the Programme CZ04 Children and Youth at Risk

Department 58 – International Relations

Published 2-8-2017

The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Social Affairs of the Czech Republic organized the Closing conference for expert public to summarize and conclude the 5 years long implementation of the Programme CZ04 “Children and Youth at Risk“ in the Czech Republic. The Programme supported 14 projects and multiple activities aiming to reduce the number of children in institutional care and transform the institutional system into a structure with available ambulatory services in the field.

More than EUR 2 million was granted thanks to the EEA Grants to nongovernmental organizations and regional municipalities to implement projects in the last 3 years.

In Zlín region there is no children´s home for children under 3 years of age anymore thanks to the grant exceeding EUR 300,000. The care of children is arranged by substitutional family care. Pardubice Region developed 8 transformational plans for 5 children´s homes and children´s centres thanks to the grant approx. EUR 415 000.

Among others, within the Small grant scheme were developed several methodologies on introduction of new tools and procedures in work with children, materials for work with the family and clients, videos on the topic of rights of children in a foster care, comic books on the life of young adults in institutional and foster care and text books with examples of good practice.

In addition to the results of the Pogramme the conference also supported sharing of good practice among the key stakeholders active in the area of children and youth at risk. Experts from Estonia and the Netherlands confirmed in their presentation that the support of family and transformation of institutional care of children into the system of effective ambulatory services in the field and support services is the right direction.

Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic presented current project supported by the Operational programme Employment of EU Funds. The aim of the programme is to support the operation of social-legal protection of children at all levels and further improvement and effectivity of stakeholders ‘input.

More than 100 experts participated in the Closing conference of the Programme CZ04 with participation of the programme operators from other beneficiary states, such as Estonia, Lithuania and Romania.