COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT FOR CARERS AND EDUCATORS OF CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE IN THE CONTEXT OF TRANSITION FROM INSTITUTIONAL TO COMMUNITY BASED CARE Erasmus Project

Project Title

COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT FOR CARERS AND EDUCATORS OF CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE IN THE CONTEXT OF TRANSITION FROM INSTITUTIONAL TO COMMUNITY BASED CARE

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Disabilities – special needs; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

In the context of transition from institutional to community based care of children, all CEE countries face the challenge of changing the institutional culture, re-training and continuing competence development of careers and foster parents who look after the children facing multiple disadvantages and being highly exposed to the risk of social inclusion. To facilitate the development of transversal (social, creative and recreational) and professional skills of the carers and foster parents, who must be able to facilitate group living, must be excellent communicators and advocates, have to know how to access a wide range of child protection and child care legislation information, and also have to be able to create a friendly and nurturing environment by mastering the domestic skills this requires, the present project addressed the following objectives:
1. Development of professional competence of trainers of carers and foster parents by offering them training curriculum, training materials and best practice models to be used in their daily work.
2. Development of the transversal skills of carers and foster parents by training them in fields such as: handling challenges, working with others, verbal and non-verbal communication, creative thinking, critical thinking, learning to learn, planning own work, problem-solving , etc.
Besides the immanent development of project management staffs’ competencies, 12 specialists (3 from each country, psychologists, social workers) have been trained in the project on how to use the Curriculum, the Training material and the Best Practice Database produced throughout the project. The transnational joint staff training facilitated not only the professional development of the participants, but will also promoted transnational cooperation and collaborative learning of specialists in child protection beyond the lifetime of the project and beyond the borders of the participating countries.
Following the transnational training the specialists in each country have organised national pilot training, using (and testing) the materials developed within the project. The training took place at various locations in Romania, Hungary, Austria and Croatia, between February-April 2016. There was a huge interest in the training in each country, so instead of participants altogether (as foreseen in the project proposal) , a number of 154 carers and foster parents (30 participants in Romania, 75 participants in Hungary, 34 participants in Croatia, 15 participants in Austria) took part in the pilots, all of them appreciating and valuing the opportunity very much.

Main activities to accomplish the project objectives were:
1) Needs analysis of the target group resulting in a transnational report on training and continuing development needs of carers and foster parents – The Croatian partner (Sirius) has been coordinating the process of needs analysis and provided guidelines for doing the research work. Results of research have been collected on Wiggio group and by e-mail. The guidelines – translated and used in all countries to collect comparable data and information – included a Methodology Guideline the the following annexes: 1. Questionnaire for the individual interview addressed to foster parents, 2. Questionnaire for the individual interview addressed to carers and educators, 3. Questionnaire for the individual interview addressed to other experts, 4. Desk research template, 5. Instructions for filling templates for collecting data from individual interviews, 6. Excel chart for summarizing findings. FINDINGS of desk research and 130 interviews taken in the four countries (41 foster parents, 68 carers and 21 other experts) are summarized and extensively described in the NEEDS ANALYSIS REPORT.
2) Developing a CMS based website that will host not only project information and downloadable outputs but also a best practice database: The website is avaialabe at carecomp.eu , it hosts the best practice database, general information and all intellectual outputs of the project.
3) Elaboration of a Curriculum and Training Material: based on the needs analysis the partners shared the tasks of developing a Curriculum and a Training Material that meets the most urgent needs of the target group. The units of the Training materials have been elaborated in national languages then translated into English for comparison, testing and peer evaluation. Pilot testing (see above) have been successfully done in each country. The training material units have been adapted and further improved based on the feedback received during the pilot training, then the final Training material has been translated into Croatian, German, Hungarian and Romanian, illustrated and graphic edited for an attractive design and printed, presented on multiplier events and other dissemination events. All language versions are made available on the project website.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 134936,05 Eur

Project Coordinator

Directia Generala de Asistenta Sociala si Protectia Copilului Harghita & Country: RO

Project Partners

• Fundatia Centrul Educational Spektrum
• JUGEND AM WERK STEIERMARK GMBH
• Sirius – Centar za psiholosko savjetovanje, edukaciju i istrazivanje
• TEGYESZ