The post-health pandemic, the impoverishment of community relations, the amplification of educational poverty and the crisis of the family system have led in recent years to an increase in situations under the care of Social Services and the consequent increase in social spending.
As highlighted by the councilor for inclusion, social services currently have around 700 minors in their care, half of which are entrusted to the municipality, which weigh on the municipal budget with 3 million euros of current expenditure.
It is a serious situation, a true emergency, given that the numbers are constantly growing: this is why the need has been identified to implement solidarity networks between families and to identify families or individual citizens available to undertake a process of family foster care to support of minors and families in difficulty.
An objective that the Administration pursues through an innovative project that will be implemented in collaboration with the Proges cooperative. entitled “AffiDARSI – from family foster care to family support.”
There are different ways in which it is possible to offer one’s availability, keeping in mind first of all that these are temporary situations that one must know how to manage with maturity and the ability to love, educate, support and with the awareness that it will not be an easy path.
In particular:
– family foster care is a form of solidarity and intervention that allows a minor coming from a family in temporary difficulty to find shelter in a family that, after having been adequately trained, can support him/her in the path of growth and development . Foster care can also include forms of “light” support, for a few hours a week or for weekends. In the meantime, the family of origin is supported and followed by the local services to support them in fully recovering their parenting skills.
– the support of a family with a supportive family/neighborhood instead provides for a supportive family to support and help a family in temporary difficulty by involving the subjects of both families through a family-centered and asset-based approach: that is, where the centrality of the intervention passes from the child to the entire family unit and its resources since the minor himself, in fact, remains with his family of origin. This is often a preventative intervention based on community-based solidarity aid (e.g. neighbourhood, school, parents of sports associations, etc.).
The innovation of the project lies in this type of support, which reactivates the educational capabilities of the community.
Who can apply?
Singles, couples, families, married and unmarried can apply. There are no limits related to age, sexual orientation or religion/ethnicity. Each project is personalized and “tailored”, that is, created to measure and based on the needs of the minor and the foster or supporting family.
Each process will be followed by the Cooperative and Social Services team, who are about to publish the tender for the management of the foster care service which will include the activation of a mediator between the foster families and the families of origin for maximum protection of the minors.
Who to contact to find out more?
You can write to this email: [email protected]
All interested parties can participate in a meeting scheduled for May 27th from 6.00pm to 8.00pm in the hall of the San Luigi oratory, during which information brochures will be distributed on the different forms that can be activated and various testimonies will be told. Further events are scheduled for June.
