Europe

Two photos capturing group training sessions. 1. Several people stand in a circle, holding pieces of coloured string. 2. Six people stand in front of a whiteboard with diagrams and handwritten notes..

EUROPE

Croatia 🇭🇷

Organisation: Nadomall Sunka (now closed)

🟨 Their goal: To create a foster care service in Croatia. 

🟩 Main Services: Foster Care Training

🟦 Summary of SFAC work: SFAC provided three workshops over three years on how to create a foster care service and why this is preferable to a children’s home. 

🟩 Outcome: A foster care service was set by Nadomall Sunka.

🗝️ Impact: Children moved into family care rather than a children’s home. Sadly, NS ran into financial challenges due to the main donor stopping and had to close in 2015.

📅 Years Active: 2007-2009.

Romania 🇷🇴

Organisation: RCIF (now closed) 

🟦 Background: Foster care was not a significant service at the time, with most children in children’s homes (aka orphanages). 

🟨 Their goal:  To create a foster care service in Romania.

🟩 Main Services: 

  • Category: Awareness and advocacy;
  • Training and consultancy on foster care. 

🟦 Summary of SFAC work: SFAC provided awareness workshops to RCIF and government agencies that enabled RCIF to get permission to begin a foster care service. A small foster care programme was set up, which ran for over 10 years until funding challenges for the organisation meant it closed, but the foster care service and staff transferred to another local organisation.

🟩 Outcome: Workshops delivered and SFAC supported RCIF gain permission to commence and deliver a small foster care programme that served over 20 children for 10 years. The service is ongoing but under a different organisation.

🗝️ Impact: Several children experienced family care instead of orphanages/children’s homes and it demonstrated foster care in action. 

📅 Years Active: 2008-2021

Organisation: City of Brasov local government

🟦 Background: At the time, foster care was not a model used in Romania, where most children were cared for in children’s homes/orphanages. 

🟨 Their goal: To create a foster care service.

🟩 Main Services: Awareness Training.

🟦 Summary of SFAC work: SFAC provided two workshops over two years to members of the local government and community on why foster care is preferable for children’s development and how foster care can be provided. 

🟩 Outcome: Workshops completed and the Brasov government created a foster care service and was supported to do so by volunteers from a local authority in England. 

🗝️ Impact: Foster care provision means many children experienced family care instead of children’s homes (aka orphanages). 

📅 Years Active: 2002-2004

Organisation: The Life Foundation

🟦 Background: Life Foundation were setting up as a charity in Romania and considering their strategy to build on the volunteer programmes they ran, supporting children in orphanages with disabilities. Their goal was to provide more long-term community support to families to prevent children from going into a children’s home (aka orphanage)

🟨 Their goal:  consider their next steps in supporting the local government’s work with children and families with disability. 

🟩 Main Services: Online Consultancy on the continuum of services.

🟦 Summary of SFAC work: SFAC delivered the continuum of services model and, through this, explored the services Life Foundation could offer and how that could assist families in caring for children in their community. Through the model, we identified Life Foundation’s expertise, skills, resources and community needs. We looked at what areas of the model they did not want to get involved in.

🟩 Outcome: Life Foundation created a programme of services that they would provide in the community. They had a clear process of who they would support, how and when.

🗝️ Impact: Children who may otherwise go to an orphanage/children’s home can be supported to live in the community with their families. 

‘Really, one of the best things we could have done for our charity is to get SFAC input and ideas. It has been a huge help to us to reflect, plan and develop our services. We avoided doing things we didn’t have the skills or resources to deliver, like foster care, and now we have a fully fledged community project and a functioning centre with a sensory room and therapy room that fits our volunteers, expertise and community need. The plans you helped us design, we were able to get funding from several sources.’

–Dr Claire Wood – The Life Foundation

Türkiye 🇹🇷

Organisation: Turkiye Government

🟦 Background: This was part of a fact finding visit by the government as they reviewed their services by visiting some different countries.

🟨 Their goal: To gain more insight into the integrated care and protection system. 

🟩 Main Services: UK exchange visit

🟦 Summary of SFAC work: The government visited Leeds Relational Practica Centre and received talks from those working in child protection, family support and care systems, as well as carers and young people. 

🟩 Outcome: Workshops delivered.

🗝️ Impact: Knowledge provided for reflection by the Turkiye government. 

UK 🇬🇧

Organisation: Vennture

🟩 Main Services: 

  • Protective behaviours training
  • Consultancy on assessments and family support
  • Case consultancy
  • Consultancy on programmes – including creating a programme for parental conflict resolution

👩‍💼👨‍💼 SFAC personnel: Dan Hope, Caitlin Lance Hope.

🗝️ Impact: Creation of a parental conflict resolution programme, improved family support and therapeutic support of children and families. 

📅 Years Active: 2024 onward

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