Ministry of Work, Labour, Veterans and Social Welfare, the Child Rights Centre is implementing the project “From behavioral problems to the necessary changes” in the period 1 April to 30 September 2014. The project envisages the creation of a model program of work and monitoring of children with behavioral problems in foster families intended for professionals and foster parents. Such a program is necessary to strengthen the competencies of professionals and foster parents and in time to provide the necessary foster families willing to accommodate children with behavioral problems, in particular the possibility of more frequent implementation of educational measure of intensified supervision in another family. This would provide the necessary cooperation of the social welfare system and the juvenile justice system and make a significant contribution to the improvement of both systems in order to achieve full compliance, implementation, promotion and protection of the rights of every child.
Project idea is supported by the Royal Norwegian Embassy through the project “Family for Every Child” and in the period May 2014 – May 2015, based on the aforementioned model a program of work and monitoring of children with behavioral problems in the foster placement for professionals and foster will develop, that is, a manual and adjusted training program for future foster parents. In order to develop model and manual a working group was formed, bringing together prominent experts and representatives of various institutions relevant for the protection of children: MA Dobrila Grujic – Director of the Center for Foster Care and Adoption Belgrade, Svetlana Milenkovic – manageress of the Service to monitor and support foster and adoptive families, Dr. Milica Pejovic Milovančević – Head of the Clinical Department for Children and Adolescents of the Institute of Mental Health, Ljubinka Markovic – independent advisor of the Department for juveniles of the Superior Court in Belgrade, Ljubomir Pejaković – a member of the Network of researchers of social circumstances, Milan Samardzija – Head of the Department for the evaluation of professional work-supervision of the Republic Institute for Social Protection and Sladjana Radulovic – project Coordinator of the Child Rights Center. Planned are also focus groups with children, foster parents, representatives of the social welfare system and the juvenile justice system, four pilot trainings for foster parents and a round table in order to present the work program and project results.
Projects are derived from the results of research conducted by the Child Rights Centre realised in cooperation with the Republic Institute for Social Protection in the period July – December 2013 (with financial support from the Ministry of Work, Labour, Veterans and Social Welfare), which were published as part of the publication “A place for me – children in foster care in Serbia.” The results served as a basis for the formulation of specific recommendations to improve the situation (as complete as possible realization and protection of the rights) of a child with problems in the functioning of the foster placement and further development of foster care in Serbia.
