...STREP-The Czech Centre for the Improvement of the Family Life is an organization that has been putting in practice the right of children to grow up happily in their own families by helping their parents to find ways how to create safe and stable home for their children since 1995….
The civic association STREP – The Czech Centre for the Improvement of the Family Life is a non-governmental, non-profit-making organization that is an officially registered provider of social services and has been granted permission to carry out social-legal protection of children in accordance with the relevant Czech legislation.
STREP has been pursuing the following activities: the development and provision of new social services for socially endangered children and their parents tailored to their needs, training and education programmes for professionals and the promotion of this issue at a legislative level. Its target group is made up of high-risk families with children endangered by child neglect. These families face many social and economic difficulties being passed from generation on to generation. The parents included in the STREP´s programmes are interested in their children and want to care for them. Having grown up in institutional care or in a dysfunctional family, they lack the parenting pattern and skills.
STREP enables:
- Children not to be removed from home and placed in institutional care.
- Children to be allowed to return home from institutional care.
- Parents to be able to create and keep up safe and stable home for their children.
- Colleagues from other institutions to cooperate on creating good practice examples.
- Organizations interested in following the STREP´s ideas to gain its know-how by the means of accredited courses, seminars, etc.
"STREP wants to be a guarantee of support, understanding, safety and inspiration to everybody".
The STREP´s working principles applying to all its programmes for families with children:
- To support families, empower them and enhance their social skills. Not to take over responsibility for their lives.
- To reinforce the strong positive aspects of the family.
- To lay down realistic and comprehensible aims of the mutual cooperation.
- To respect ethnic traditions.
The STREP´s statistical data prove that its work and the type of social services developed and provided by it are effective. Hundreds of children have never been placed in institutional care and dozens of children have been allowed to return home without another placement being necessary.
By the publication of its statistics and continuous cooperation with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Ombudsman, STREP contributed to the incorporation of social activation services for endangered families with children in the Czech legislation, particularly in the amendment of the Social-Legal Protection of Children Act (1999, 2006) and the Social Services Act (2006).
STREP is aware of the fact that its employees are the advocates of its ideas in public. Therefore, STREP supports them and cares for them so that their help to endangered children and their families is at a high quality level.
The costs of the STREP´s services for one person (a child or a family member) are in comparison with the costs for one child to stay in an institutional care facility significantly lower. The average costs for one child to stay in an institutional care facility are about CZK 249 207,- per year, the average costs of the STREP´s services for one person are about CZK 10 300,- per year. The STREP´s services are provided free-of-charge. Its work must be advantageous for the state budget, taxpayers and the community in general.
Every year, STREP passes on its know-how to dozens of people interested in its services, organizes professional seminars, conferences, contributes to the change of practice in care for endangered children and cooperates on the change of the Czech legislative environment .
STREP seeks to enlarge the number of organizations providing good quality social services for the aforementioned children, it offers them the professional guidance and supervision. It is the only way to achieve the reduction of the number of children placed in institutional care and shortening the length of their stay there.
STREP seeks so that each child, parent, colleague or statesman can consider STREP to be an organization that gives chance a chance.
CONTACT STREP
Address: Řehořova 10, Prague 3 130 00 Czech Republic
Tel: +420 224 232 261
Fax: +420 224 224 361
E-mail: strep@centrum.cz
www.strep.cz