Our CEE Regional Programs

In Vienna with Big Brothers Big Sisters

In Austria, 17% of all families are single parent families, and a total 332,000 children risk poverty and social exclusion. These circumstances create disadvantages that can affect children’s health, growth and future success: recent studies demonstrate that 25% of all young Austrians suffer from at least one mental health issue.
 

The Human Safety Net, in cooperation with Generali Austria and Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) has developed a new family mentoring program – FAME, or Family Association for Mental health Everywhere – that strengthens parenting skills and supports children ages 3-6 living in deprived and challenging situations.
 

The 6-month program applies a resource-based approach designed to foster healthy relationships between parents and children from an early age. It is targeted to families who do not have access to, awareness of or means to pay for parenting support. Six training modules address topics like relationships with children, child development, boundaries, routines, stress management and more. Children participate in parallel workshops on similar topics that are run in a playful, age-appropriate manner. A mentor spends time with them, creating positive experiences through weekly activities. Both parents and children are supported by professional trainers, and the structure includes corporate volunteering opportunities for Generali Austria employees.
 

The program

The first group of family mentoring (children, parents, mentors) started in September 2019 in Vienna. The programme is designed to support the entire family to give children between the ages of three and six a better chance for their future. In order to have a formative influence during this important time, mentors provide the children with time, attention and appreciation as persons of trust. On the other hand, parents who face special challenges learn to discover their strengths and make better use of their potential.
 

Partners involved

Big Brothers Big Sisters Österreich
 

Local activities

1:1 mentoring and workshops for parents and children

BBBS is an affiliate of Big Brothers Big Sisters International and has been offering mentoring programs for disadvantaged children and youth in Austria since 2012. Together with Generali Austria, BBBS has developed Family Mentoring (FAME), a new program designed to strengthen parenting skills and improve the lives of children ages 3-6 in deprived and challenging situations. Family Mentoring combines one-to-one mentoring with workshops for parents and children, applying a resource-based approach that is designed to foster healthy relationships between parents and children starting from an early age.
 

In partnership with For Our Children Foundation

In December 2016 the last child in the medical and social care residential institution St. Sofia in Sofia left the institution for a new life in a family. In August 2020, the former institution was replaced by a modern Complex for Early Childhood Development. This transformation, dreamed of and accomplished by For Our Children Foundation is at the heart of our mission to help children grow in a nurturing family environment. In 2019, as a result of our work, 342 children were saved from separation with their biological families and 635 parents received support to improve their parenting skills.
 

Since the end 2019, The Human Safety Net (THSN) and Generali Bulgaria are supporting another transformation we have dreamed of – the development of holistic services for children aged 0-7 that stimulate the physical, mental and social development of the child. This transformation is already taking place in the Complex for Early Childhood Development in Sofia and will be implemented in a second ECD Complex in Plovdiv soon. The project Open the Way to Early Childhood Development in Bulgaria (2020-2021) is THSN’s and Generali Bulgaria’s investment in the capacity of our organization to design and deliver top-quality services for families and children. Our psychologists, early childhood specialists, early intervention specialists, social workers, rehabilitators, and family consultants will serve at least 1300 parents and 706 children for each year of the project. We are privileged to partner with Generali Bulgaria in fostering corporate social responsibility for the benefit of children and families.
 

The program

The Program builds upon the 28-year old work of the Foundation for the complex development of the child in a secure family environment.
 

Partners involved

For Our Children Foundation
 

Local activities

Supporting children development in a safe family environment

For Our Children Foundation (FOC) is The Human Safety Net’s partner for the Family Program in Bulgaria. The Program builds upon the 28-year old work of the Foundation for the complex development of the child in a secure family environment. It has three streams: family support and early childhood development services; fostering supportive environment for families and children through CSR; and developing FOC's organisational capacity to deliver quality ECD services.
 

Supporting visually impaired children with Nadace Leontinka

With the "For Families" program, we want to support premature babies and their families, covering all three phases – before, during, and after birth. We cooperate with two NGO partners: Vita et Futura (Endowment Fund for development of gynecology and obstetrics) and Nadace Leontinka (Leontinka Foundation).
 

With Vita et Futura we support the maternity hospital U Apolináře in Prague with the supply of modern diagnostic equipment helping predict risk factors during pregnancy and delivery, to reduce the number and impact of long-lasting disabilities. In cooperation with Nadace Leontinka, we support the early care social service provided to premature newborns that require dedicated assistance, right after birth in the Maternity hospital České Budějovice and later, during the first months of babies' lives, also at families' homes across the Czech Republic.
With our activities, we aim to identify health complications early and provide adequate support in case of a complicated delivery.
 

Babies born pre-term can develop a visual impairment that impacts their quality of life and their families. The Human Safety Net in the Czech Republic has partnered with Nadace Leontinka (Leontinka Foundation) in fulfilling its mission to 'bring light' to the lives of visually impaired children since the beginning of 2020, supporting both For Families and For Newborns programs.
 

We support families with visually impaired children up to 6 years old, focusing on providing them with early care social service to stimulate children's sensory perception, improve their movement skills, and eventually strengthen their social relationships.
Everyday training and stimulation of children's eyesight can reduce their visual impairment up to 100%.
 

Parents are empowered as they receive support with practical activities (eye stimulation exercises with children, loans of equipment and toys) and educational ones (counseling, care recommendations, advice of expert counselors on medical examinations, child's development plan or adjusting their family environment to better cope with their child's handicap).
We contribute to helping the social workers and the service they provide to families in a professional, yet caring and empathetic way.
 

The program

In cooperation with our partner Nadace Leontinka we support families with visually impaired children. Leontinka currently provides support, advice, and guidance to around 600 families with visually impaired children through early care social services.
 

Partners involved

Nadace Leontinka

Vita et Futura

Local activities

Nadace Leontinka:
Helping children and young people with visual impairment to be integrated in society

Nadace Leontinka mission is to bring light in the light in the lives of visually impaired children. In cooperation with Early Care Centers throughout the Czech Republic, Nadace Leontinka provides comprehensive assistance to families with children with visual and combined disabilities. The activities mainly include rehabilitation, visual stimulation, and training of skills to compensate for the children's special needs. Their staff works directly with families to facilitate the integration of visually impaired children into society.

Creating the opportunities for a solid foundation

With our for Families programme, we aim to support parents to enhance a healthy, balanced development for their children in their most vulnerable early childhood period, thereby providing them stronger foundations for their future.
 

After an initial focus on supporting premature baby care in Hungary, we gradually broadened our activities to vulnerable families with 0-6 years aged children.
 

The program

In cooperation with our partners, our objective is to create better opportunities for solid foundations, which is key for further development. There are four areas where we would like to impact: give opportunity for premature babies, for a balanced early childhood, for making the most out of their own resources and for a healthy development.
 

Partners involved

Pozitív Attitűd Formálás (PAF)
 

BLUM Program
 

Otthon segítünk Alapítvány
 

Mothers for Mothers Foundation
 

Melletted a helyem Egyesület
 

Local activities

PAF Foundation:
Improving family-centered babycare and support for preterm babies and their families

PAF offers customized human organizational development (OD) at Neonatal Intensive Care Units with The Human Safety Net.
 

The objective is to develop a newborn baby care system by increasing baby focus and involving parents in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units’ (NICU) treatment.
NICUs can achieve the following goals through the customized human OD project:

• Stronger cooperation and responsibility
• Improve the efficiency of leadership and change management
• Decrease burnout
• Better involvement of parents and more effective communication with them

Melletted a helyem Egyesület - Right(s) Beside You Association:
For the premature babies

The Association brings together doctors, medical professionals, psychologists, obstetricians and parent representatives of premature children in order to improve the quality of care. In order to achieve our goals, one of our main activities is to provide training for physicians and healthcare professionals performing prenatal care and work towards the implementation of family-centred care principles and the 24 hours presence of parents.
The Human Safety Net supports the Association’s educational activities for both professionals and families.
 

Otthon segítünk Alapítvány:
For a balanced early childhood

Home Start is an effective program with a long history of supporting families with young children with the help of trained volunteers through regular home visits.
Through the supportive parent groups and workshops with The Human Safety Net, parents would have the chance to be part of a community, get the relevant parenting information and get to know the core service of the foundation while getting support from volunteers as well.
 

BLUM Program:
„What can you do today for the future of your children?”

The mission of BLUM is to help children make the most out of their own resources, abilities, and personality to find their place in the world and feel comfortable with themselves.
BLUM’s „Bluming” program offers an accredited training program for kindergarten teachers. Within the project with The Human Safety Net, workshops will be organized for parents of disadvantaged children from the kindergarten groups in rural villages where the teachers have been involved in the Bluming training. The workshop series aims to stimulate and prepare parents so that the children's primary and secondary socialization environment (family and institution) strengthen one another and represent the same approach to develop the childrens abilities as fully as possible.
 

Mothers for Mothers Foundation

The program offers early intervention and support to vulnerable families with small children. It aims to enhance the resilience, mental health and well-being of children by supporting parents. Activities aim to make parents more conscious about nutrition, their health issues (regular, free medical check-ups), and provide a solid background for their family regarding financials or housing.
 

In partnership with the Medical University of Poznań

Together with the Medical University of Karol Marcinkowski in Poznań we are carrying out a project to implement the first systemic therapeutic hypothermia in Poland, including the transportation of newborns with asphyxia.
 

It consists of equipping three ambulances in Poland and providing specialist equipment for conducting therapeutic hypothermia, which is a recognized methodology to improve the results of treatment of children suffering from asphyxia.
 

The program

It consists of equipping three ambulances in Poland and providing specialist equipment for conducting therapeutic hypothermia, which is a recognized methodology to improve the results of treatment of children suffering from asphyxia.
 

The devices providing neonatal cooling machines transportations are available in the hospitals in Poznań, Zielona Góra, and Bydgoszcz in Poland. Our goal is to reduce the occurrence of issues connected to newborn asphyxia by applying two pillars:
 

• strengthening the treatment with therapeutic hypothermia already in the transportation of newborns at risk within six hours from birth
• improving medical care and promoting the introduction of best practices in transportation and maternity and neonatal wards through workshops and training for doctors and nurses.
   

Partners involved

Poznan University of Medical Sciences

Local activities

Medical University of Karol Marcinkowski in Poznań

The Poznan University of Medical Sciences is one of the best and largest medical universities in Poland, with over 95 years of sound academic experience and a great growth momentum. The University is a leading medical school in Poland and is currently recognized as the largest educational, research and clinical center in Poland.

In 23 locations with Novak Djokovic Foundation

Serbia is a country in transition worn out by years of conflict and the deterioration of financial position of majority of its citizens. In the pursuit of a better quality of life, parents often neglect the needs of children, which in the long run affects their psycho-physical development. Various studies conducted in Serbia show that work with parents, as well as the coverage of children with pre-school education is still very low compared to EU countries.
 

Early learning has the greatest impact on children from the poorest families. The current situation in Serbia is that preschool education leaves out of the system children most in need of this type of impact, so that 50% of children ages 3-5 are not covered by preschool education.
 

At the national level, there are no programs for preparing and supporting parents in fulfilling their parental role, as there are no programs for parents to be aware of strategies important for fostering child development.
 

Therefore, The Human Safety Net in Serbia decided to support the Novak Djokovic Foundation, which aims to change this situation and set up the ‘Support, Not Perfection’ program. The main objective of the program is to foster early child development by helping their parents understand how best to develop their children's potential.
 

The program

The Human Safety Net started to support the program Support, Not Perfection in October 2018. So far, more than 290 parents have attended 29 workshops in 23 cities across Serbia.
 

Partners involved

Novak Djokovic Foundation

Local activities

The Novak Đoković Foundation:
Let’s make better future for children!

The Novak Đoković Foundation was established with a goal to provide children in Serbia with a better environment for education and growing up. The Support, Not Perfection program is one of many programs run by the Foundation. The program was designed to help parents, empower them with new skills and enable them to share their successes and their challenges. Over 1,500 parents across Serbia have taken part in the program. With the support of The Human Safety Net we want to make that number even higher in the future.

In six cities with Union of Mothers' Center

The latest results demonstrate that 16.1 % of the Slovak inhabitants were endangered by poverty or social exclusion in 2018. The poverty endangers 48.9 % of poor inhabitants, what is the highest rate, but also 36.9 % of incomplete households of single parents with one or more dependent children. It also endangers 35.8 % of complete families with three and more dependent children. Children younger than 18 years are the most endangered age group within the income poverty. Each fifth child (20.1 %) lives in a household with the income below the poverty level.
 

The programme “Learning for Life“ was launched within The Human Safety Net initiative in cooperation with the Union of Mother Centres in Slovakia. The programme is focused on help to disadvantaged families (socially, financially, medically) with aim to decrease the poverty via inclusive education. The free programme “Learning for Life“ is aimed at disadvantaged and socially weak families with children of 0 – 6 years. During 11 months the families meet once a week in mother/family centre at workshops under guidance of a certified lecturer. Each session takes 2 – 3 hours during which parents using Montessori method learn to develop skills and capabilities of their children in a playful form. Education is aimed at development of sensomotoric, language and social skills, at fine-tuning of senses and development of thinking, as well as at learning within the different areas – colours recognition, mathematics and geography for children and many others.
 

The program

The programme Learning for Life has been launched in November 2018 in 6 cities all around Slovakia.
 

Partners involved

Únia materských centier

Local activities

The Union of Mother Centres

The Union of Mother Centres is a non-government non-profit organization which supports creation of mother and family centres in the different regions of Slovakia. It helps mother and family centres to grow on a local level, it merges mother and family centres in entire Slovakia, it helps centres to keep fix and unique place in a social perception. The mission of the Union of Mother Centres is to achieve dignity and recognition of the motherhood in a society. To create a better world around us where mothers with children have a dignified position. To create conditions which support the motherhood, in the supreme interest of a child, mother and family.

In partnership with ZPM-Moste Polje in Ljubljana

The most recent (2016) data for Slovenia shows that the at-risk-of-poverty rate remains at 13.9% and the risk of social exclusion rate at 18.4%. This is especially troubling given that 46,000 of the people living in poverty are children.
 

To offer help to Slovenian families in need The Human Safety Net partnered with Zveza prijateljev mladine Ljubljana Moste-Polje (Association of Friends of Youth Ljubljana Moste-Polje). The association’s program ‘Volja vselej najde pot’ (Will Always Finds a Way) is supported by the Ministry of labor, family, social affairs and equal opportunities and certified by the Social Chamber of Slovenia, and offers help and support in various fields connected to family life.
 

Family members can participate in number of workshops designed to strengthen parenting skills, learn to manage financial affairs and the household, improve literacy) as well as receive therapeutic help and support for utilizing Slovenia’s social system. Children can take advantage of holiday and free time activities, and all activities are organized by professional, experienced volunteers and social workers.
 

The goal is to help improve each family’s living conditions. Participating families learn new skills and reinforce exisiting skills, thereby creating a path to a better future.
 

Since 2015 we have helped 146 families in need, helping them pay bills, organizing family weekends for roughly one hundred families, and giving them an opportunity to change their lives and the lives of their children for the better.
 

The program

• ‘Volja vselej najde pot’ was launched in 2010
• Generali Slovenia becomes a program benefactor (April 2015) as part of The Human Safety Net
   

Partners involved

Zveza prijateljev mladine Ljubljana Moste-Polje

Local activities

Partner Zveza prijateljev mladine Ljubljana Moste-Polje:
Helping Slovenian families escape poverty

Non-profit humanitarian organization ZPM Ljubljana Moste-Polje (Association of Friends of Youth Ljubljana Moste-Polje) has been ensuring equal opportunities and a healthy psychophysical development for children and youth for over six decades.
 

The program “Volja vselej najde pot” (Will Always Finds a Way) includes young parents in projects which empower them, helping them establish healthy family dynamics, supporting parenting activities and ensuring healthy development for their children. It helps parents fulfil their life goals and equips them to become independent and make a positive contribution to society.
 

A part of every donation goes to the program, while the rest is directed to other activities including creation of the “Družinski center Skupen korak” (“Common Step” Family Center) and therapeutic weekends for families.
 

Every summer volunteers from Generali Slovenia collect school materials for children from disadvantaged environments, distributing these donations through ZPM Ljubljana Moste-Polje each September in order to facilitate the children’s first days at school.
 

“Without The Human Safety Net’s financial help we wouldn’t be able to do everything we do. We’ve helped create a foundation for a better future for almost 100 families… We are unbelievably thankful for this donation. It has been a great help, allowing us to save families and children in great distress, when they were unable to escape poverty on their own.” - Anita Ogulin, ZPM Ljubljana Moste-Polje.