FICE Newsletter

fice congresses During the congress we plan to attribute the FICE AWARD 2019 to a nonprofit organization named Apolo Foundation from Kenya, who was selected by the prize committee, for outstanding social initiatives aiming at empowering children and youth. The criteria were elaborated by a committee chaired by Yoav Apelboim with Lia Meron, Dr. Alex Schneider and Yaron Braun from Israel. Hoping to see all of you in Tel Aviv in October 2019, in the Campus of the Ono Academic College. On behalf of the Organizing Committee, Prof. Emmanuel Grupper, Chairman, FICE International Co-President and Professor at the Ono Academic College About the newsletter FICE INTERNATIONAL FICE InternationaL 34th congress - 29 - 31 October {{page}} Newsletter prof. Emmanuel Grupper, congress chair October, 2019 FICE International holds international congresses once in three years. In 2016 FICE held its 33 Congress in Vienna. More about it here Dear colleagues, dear participants of the 34 FICE Congress, I would like to welcome all participants in the FICE International 34th World Congress in Tel Aviv, Israel. The Congress organizers are composed of the Israeli members of FICE International, The Israeli Public Forum for Youth Village & Boarding schools for Children at Risk, the Ono Academic College, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services, together with a large group of Israeli NGOs, all active in the field of education and care of children and young people who need out-of-Home care. We are very happy and honored to have the opportunity to host you in this Congress in Israel. Many Israeli professionals from a large variety of residential programs, policy makers, researchers, civil society organizations and care leavers will be represented here, together with participants coming from many different countries. I expect the mutual exchange of knowledge to benefit all of us who face the challenges of the field of education and care of children and young people who need specialized services, both in out-of-home care and in community-based programs. The theme that was chosen for the congress is relevant to the many societies worldwide that are becoming more and more multicultural. The challenge of our era is to guarantee "Better Future Opportunities for Children and Young People in Multicultural Societies." On the Congress website, you will find ongoing updates on the Congress and its contents. We are particularly happy that the European Union member states have selected "children without parental care" as the proposed theme for the 2019 resolution on the Rights of the Child. This would certainly be one of the focuses of our discussions and deliberations during the Congress. Other topics would be: residential care in various regions in the world, care leavers, refugee youth and unaccompanied minors, education and learning challenges of children and adolescents in care, staff training, just to name a few of them. The Congress program was developed by the scientific Committee chaired by Prof. Shalhevet Attar-Schwartz from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In this newsletter FICE International members share news about their recent projects and activities.  This year's FiCE Award winner is a nonprofit organization named Apolo Foundation from Kenya. The Project's theme is "Weaving the Safety" The project is about fostering family-community relationships among families which suffer from severe AIDS. The goal of the project is to develop resilience among orphaned and vulnerable children, while the program includes an environment of homes and a supportive community, which enables the development of meaningful relationships with older caregivers and finding positive solutions and strategies for dealing with complex problems. The project deals with a massive empowerment of girls and women in the treated community. The Award will be officially granted during the 34th FICE Congress 29 - 31 October 2019, Tel Aviv Israel. {{page}} FICE AWARD FICE InternationaL AWARD WINNER 2019! In autumn 2017, FICE Austria initiated a cooperative process for the development of quality standards for professional alternative care settings (so-called social pedagogical group homes) in Austria. 19 organizations1 working in the field of alternative care participated in that joint process. The project was funded by the Austrian Fonds Healthy Austria (Fonds Gesundes Österreich) and lasted a total of 19 months. In May 2019, the final quality standards were presented to a professional audience. An important reason for this initiative is the specific Austrian federal structure: Despite a high number of children cared for in professional alternative care facilities (about 8.400 children in 2017 across Austria), there are still no national quality standards available. Thus, children and youth in different Austrian provinces face different care conditions and realities. Out of this reason, the project aimed to define quality standards for facilities for all provinces of Austria. With the clear position that all children have the right to the highest possible quality (which needs to be transparent and comparable), the project aimed to develop quality standards in a participatory and joint negotiation process with different key stakeholder of all Austrian federal states. The project was based on international children’s rights. In order to include different positions and to ensure the commitment of decision makers in the field of child protection as well as of social science two working groups were established. The working group „quality circle“ included 17 professionals working in the field of child protection in both, public and private institutions. In 13 workshops, this working group developed the quality standards and professional attitudes for the areas of clearing, help planning and care processes in professional small group homes. The working group “Sounding Board“ consisted of key decision makers and scientists of 19 organizations. The Sounding Board committee met four times in the course of the project and had the task of providing feedback on the developed outcomes of the quality circle working group. Overall, the project aimed to not only develop quality standards, but to mainly to reach a joint agreement about them. This overall goal has been successfully achieved which is in no way self-evident and points to the high potential of cooperative engagement for the rights and the best possible care of children and adolescents in alternative care. In total, 66 quality standards were developed and published in a handbook that includes 11 chapters presenting the standards, professionally explanations for all standards as well as legal conditions and professional attitudes.   {{page}} Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Austria 1Among these: Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Arbeitskreis Noah (Wien und NÖ), Caritas der Erzdiözese Wien, Dachverband Österreichischer Kinder- und Jugendhilfeeinrichtungen (DÖJ), Diakonie de la Tour (Kärnten), FICE Austria, Jugend am Werk Steiermark, Kinder- und Jugendanwaltschaft (Wien), KOKO (Salzburg), Lebensraum Heidlmair (OÖ, NÖ und Burgenland), MAG ELF (Kinder- und Jugendhilfe Wien), Ludwig Boltzmann Institut für Menschenrechte, ProSoz Wien, Quality-Care-Consulting, Rettet das Kind NÖ, SOS Kinderdorf, Volksanwaltschaft, Volkshilfe Wien, Vorarlberger Kinderdorf. OBJECTIVE To embed a child-rights based culture into child protection systems which improve outcomes for care leavers HOW THE PARTNERS ACHIEVE THIS Capacity Building • Train care professionals on how to embed a child rights based approach into their work in preparation for leaving care. • Build a supportive network for care leavers to improve their access to social rights through a digital one-stop-shop. Awareness raising & Advocacy ▪ Engage with stakeholders at European and national level and raise awareness on the need to improve outcomes for care leavers. LOCAL OWNERSHIP Local ownership and sustainability of the project’s impact after 2020 is ensured through National Steering Groups in each country. YOUTH PARTICIPATION Youth participation is central and integral to all project activities. National Youth Expert Groups (YEGs) are organised in each of the implementing project countries. Two young people from each National YEG are members of the International YEG and two are part of the Project Steering Group (the young people choose these representatives themselves). At the end of the project, the YEG members will self-assess their involvement in project activities and the extent to which their inputs have been taken on board in key tools and outputs. KEY OUTCOMES ▪ Scoping exercise including peer to peer interviews (May – August 2018) ▪ Training of 12 Master Trainers (September– October 2018) ▪ Delivery of national trainings (including a youth module) to 385 care professionals in the 6 project countries (December 2018 – June 2019) ▪ A digital one-stop-shop (YouthLinks) in 5 project countries ▪ Development of National Policy Guidelines ▪ European Leaving Care Conference (June 2019) ▪ Final project evaluation (April 2020) For more information about the project, please contact the project manager Ms Florence Treyvaud-Nemtzov at florence.treyvaud-nemtzov@soskd.org or project coordinator Ms Gabriella Rask at gabriella.rask@sos-kd.org   Austria {{page}} Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Leaving Care – An Integrated Approach to Capacity Building of Professionals and Young People  FACT BOX: Project coordinator: SOS Children’s Villages International Implementing partners: FICE Austria, SOS Children’s Villages national associations in Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary Italy, Romania and FONPC (Romanian network of NGOs) Funding:The project is co-funded up to 80% of the total costs by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) Programme of the European Union and SOS Children’s Villages. We w OBJECTIVE The CYCLES project is set to improve entrepreneurship skills and financial literacy of child and youth care practitioners (CYCP). Child and youth care systems in countries across Europe provide decent support for children and adolescents with complex needs. However, in most countries care ends at the age of 18, leaving the so called young care leavers to stand on their own feet and earn a living. Young care leavers (YCL) belong to the most vulnerable groups in European societies, exhibiting an above-average propensity to fall into unemployment, poverty, criminality and other undesirable developments. YCL employability would increase substantially with improved financial literacy and entrepreneurship skills. The problem is, however, that YCL hardly get the chance to develop such skills during care. Therefore, CYCLES addresses child and youth care practitioners as multipliers: CYCLES empowers CYCP to act as financial literacy and entrepreneurship mentors, pass on their skills and help establish favourable conditions for further capacity building. INTELLECTUAL OUTPUTS At the start of the project, the partners analysed the target groups’ training needs. In order to create an effective training programme, they first conducted desk research, focus group interviews, and a gap analysis (IO1: Analysis reports). The partners then created a skill card to define the set of skills that the future trainees must acquire (IO2: Skill card creation and strategy design). Once these two steps were completed, they created the training curriculum (IO3: Training Curriculum). Finally, they developed and implemented training sessions on Entrepreneurship and Financial Education (IO4: CYCLES training on Entrepreneurship and Financial Education). These training sessions were divided in 4 modules: Module 1: Basic Financial Literacy for daily life; Module 2 : Contracts, law and benefits in finances; Module 3: Personal budget planning; Module 4: Entrepreneurship. The next intellectual output, IO5, consisted in creating the Transferability and Evaluation Handbook, following the completion of the training sessions. From April to July 2019 the partners carried out trainings of professionals (train the trainer sessions and trainings of CYCPs). A total of 11 trainings were carried out by the partners and a total of 90 professionals were trained. FICE Bulgaria trained 5 trainers and 20 CYCPs . All intellectual outputs, including the CYCLES training are available on the project website   CYCLES project - Child and youth caretakers financial literacy and entrepreneurship  FACTBOX: Project coordinator: FH JOANNEUM Gesellschaft mbH (Austria) Implementing partners: Fundacja Samodzielni Robinsonowie,(Poland), Groupe SOS Jeunesse(France) and IKJ Institut für Kinder- und Jugendhilfe GmbH(Germany), FICE-Bulgaria and the Federal Association of Therapeutic Communities (Austria) Funding:The project is funded by the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership for Adult Education CYCLES Promotional Video BULGARIA Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   {{page}} Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   In January, 2019, James co-edited (with Lilia Zaharieva) a special issue of the International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies (Volume 10, 2-2) on “Understanding and Responding to Pain Based Behaviour in Child and Youth Work.” Zaharieva and Anglin co-authored an article exploring young people’s experiences and proposing an eight-stage model of healing. All articles freely available on-line. In April, James presented on a panel with Dr. Larry Brendtro, Dr. James Whittaker, Dr. Richard Small and Martha Holden on “The Legacy of the Other 23 Hours and the Future of Child and Youth Care” at the Association of Children’s Residential Centres (ACRC) in New Orleans. (Paper) In early June, James presented a keynote in Glasgow, Scotland putting the current national care review in a historical and international perspective. This presentation was published in the Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care (Volume 18, 2) as “A Review Like No Other: Putting Love at the Heart of the Care System.” (Article available free on-line.) Later in June, James travelled to the Northern Territory of Australia to begin a three-year action research project on the implementation of the Cornell CARE Program Model with an emphasis on ensuring the cultural dimensions and processes are appropriate to the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander contexts. In July, James was honoured to receive a Lifetime Membership in the National Association of Child and Youth Care Workers (NACCW) in Durban, South Africa for career achievement and contributions to CYC in South Africa over 25 years. Discussions continue on the re-vival of FICE-Canada as a national section of FICE International. James Anglin - Individual member from Canada  CAnada {{page}} FICE Croatia is one of the partners in the European project LeaveCare-LiveLife: Building the European Care Leavers Network for youngsters leaving foster and residential care and actively living and participating in life ". The project is launched in December 2017, lasts 28 months and is funded within Erasmus Plus Programme. It is aimed at giving young care leavers the tools to be better prepared for their future independent lives. The project partners – Associazione Agevolando from Italy as project leader, FICE Croatia, Care Leavers Association from United Kingdom, Care Leavers Network Ireland and TIBERIUS Association from Romania- already agreed and tested with more than 150 youngsters a methodology of group participation. The Care Leavers Participation Groups, CLPGs –bring to the creation of Recommendations to the decision makers, professionals, journalists for improving the care leavers’ situation. We have held training for the associations’ staff in Maynooth, Ireland and a further training conference for 30 professionals – educators, social workers, psychologists from the partners’ countries in Bucharest, Romania. In September 2019 the third event took place in Zagreb gathering 40 young care leavers who worked for five days on recommendations for better care services in Europe. The participants were from Croatia, United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine. Created recommendations will be addressed to decision makers at European level, in preparation for the final conference to be held at the premises of the EU institutions in Brussels in the early months of 2020. The two relevant outputs were aimed at increasing the awareness about the issue of youth participation in leaving care and to promote change of mentality towards an active role of young people in the decisions affecting their lives. In addition, the project is creating a virtual exchange platform for young people with care experience that goes alongside the direct exchanges, in person, as a space for their participation and active citizenship. Beyond the project, partners are engaged in creating the European Care Leavers Network, a stable organization based in Brussels that can protect the rights of care leavers in all the EU countries through their direct action. Policies and legislation about leaving the care system, in fact, can differ in a significant way in Europe. The final aim of the promoted activities is to achieve a better situation for care leavers in all the EU countries and to inform and change legislations and policies at EU and national levels using the care leaver voice and experience.   Croatia Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   LEAVE CARE – LIVE LIFE – European project for supporting care leavers participation  {{page}} In Europe and ‘western’ societies most young people leave care between 16-18 years of age, although there is a large variation. In comparison with young people in the general population, most young people leave care at a younger age and have to cope with major changes in their lives in a far shorter time. Their journey to adulthood is more accelerated and compressed. The pathway from care to adulthood is also less supported and more linear – whereas in the general population most young people ‘yo-yo’ between birth families and independence. Against this background, IGfH has launched three consecutive projects on the subject of Leaving Care in the German context. Based on a cooperation with the University of Hildesheim starting in 2014, all three projects have been focusing on the situation, demands and needs of Care Leavers when being in transition from residential or foster care into adulthood. While Project I (2012-2014) dealt with the question of „What happens after out of home care?“ and Project II (2014 - 2016) tried to shed light on the aspect of „Rights in the Transition Process - support and participation of Care Leavers“, Project III – which is to be concluded in 2019 – sheds light on transition management into adulthood and aims at developing professional concepts and reliable structures of transition to supporting young adults when leaving care. Project III - which is to be finished in 2019 - evaluates professional practices and approaches of accompanying young people into adulthood and tries to identify practices which have been marked as help- or successful. Through a comparison of professional practices in three different German cities, the first step was to consolidate and evaluate already existing professional ways of support for Care Leavers. Based on that, the overall-aim is to advance professional concepts and practical approaches of guiding and structuring transitions and to promote the implementation of an inclusive transition management into professional support planning and case management. This also implies to support networks and platforms of self-organizations for Care Leavers, to promote Care Leaver associations and to facilitate socially supportive infrastructures for young adults beyond the youth care system. Previous results and advanced professional conceptions have been already presented, discussed and reflected at a final symposium in Berlin which took place end of March 2019. These results will then be transferred into practice orientated guidelines and examples for an inclusive transition management. More information on our website Summary of materials and afterthoughts referring to the symposium Care Leaver Projects: „Well supported into adulthood. Transition management during and after residential care. (2016 – 2019)  {{page}} Germany Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   {{page}} INDIA Call for contributions in a research paper - India  Request for contribution in "Research Paper" towards publication of a compendium on the issue of "Problems and struggles of the children at risk with special focus on street & working children" in English language, worldwide in hard copies by the FICE India. Dear Madam/Sir, Greetings from FICE India - a network of child welfare, care and protection organisations working in India for amelioration of sufferings of the vulnerable children , children at risk and the children who need care protection. FICE India was established in the year l998 as the Indian People section of the FICE International, with the initiative of the Liberal Association for Movement of People (LAMP) which is a national award winning NGO since 1978 under the leadership of Dr' Malay Dewanji, who is also the president of FICE India its inception. FICE India is planning to publish a compendium of country specific abridged research documentation on the issue of "Problems and struggles of the children at risk with a special focus on the problems of street & working children" in hard copies. Those who have done a thorough research on the problem of children at risk with special focus on street children and working children in their respective area of operation are requested to submit their research documentation with good gesture to our office with the authority to publish for the benefits of the people/ organisations working for the rights, care and protection of the vulnerable street and working children and the children at risk worldwide. All contributions towards the publication of this compendium, jointly edited by the undersigned and another professional from FICE Europe/USA/Canada will be highly appreciated and acknowledged worldwide in proper manner. The income from the sale of this proposed publication will be shared with all the contributors. Considering the above,, you are requested kindly to make a clarion call in your country, for submission of editable soft copies of such research documentations by the concerned persons office directly or to our or through you at the earliest possible time. Soliciting your kind cooperation and with warm regards, Yours sincerely Dr. Malay Dewanji President, FICE India. And President, LAMP. Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Brief Report of the FICE-India Annual Conference held at Kolkata, on 30-09-2019 INDIA {{page}} The Annual Conference 2019 of the FICE-India was held at West Bengal Voluntary Health Association Tower Hall, Kolkata, on 30-09-2019, at 10-00 A.M. The Conference was inaugurated by five Children at risk, with the presence of 108 delegates representing various Child Rights, Care and Protection Organisations. After the inauguration, a cultural presentation was done by various cultural activists, which is co-ordinated by Ms. Ranjana Bhattacharya, an Expert on Child Rights and Protection, and Co-ordinator, Open Shelter under the ICPS Scheme, Gana Unnayan Parshad. Then a key-note address was presented by Dr. Malay Dewanji, President, FICE-India, and a renowned Child Rights activist, followed by elaborate discussions on various child related issues. Later, a session on “Child Rights and Integrated Child Protection Scheme” in India, was organised, in which nine Child care and protection activists presented their ideas and experiences, followed by questions and answers. In this session, a research paper on “Childhood under Red Lights: Children in the Commercial Sex Trade in a Global Context” was presented and elaborately discussed. Shri Ramesdh Saha Poddar, Programme Director, LAMP, and an Expert on Child Care and Protection, co-ordinated the said session. After the Lunch, an Open House session on “Future plan of action for Child Rights, Care and Protection in India” was organised, in which all the participants actively participated. Ms. Sutapa Sarkar, an Expert on Women and Child Rights, and Director, Gana Unnayan Parshad(GUP) moderated the whole session. At the end, a core National Committee of the FICE- India, was elected for a period of two years. Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   {{page}} ISRAEL Summary: The activities that described above are only a part of a whole set of work with us in "Ahava" and with biological parents. The results of a series of these groups show that there is no doubt that there is a significant improvement in the relationship between the biological parents and the staff and, more importantly, between the parents and their children. If anyone interested to receive additional information can contact with me and I will be happy to answer. Yoav Appelboim Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   There is a wide variety of difficulties in the relationship with biological parents of children who have been placed in in an out-of-the home care center. Here are some of these difficulties: a. A sense of mutual alienation between the staff members and the biological parents. b. Parental concern that the staff will replace their role. c. The staff's concern that parents will interfere with the educational and therapeutic processes that they are leading. d. Distrust of the biological parents in "the system." All of the above do not contribute to the child's normative development, and overcoming these problems may contribute, both in improving the overall family functioning ability, and to the child's personal development. At "Ahava" the system that I am managing, we reached the conclusion many years ago, that the involvement of the biological parents must be integrated into the work processes with the children. In order to achieve this, we realized that, at first, we must work with the educational and therapeutic staff, to reduce the level of stress and to change mental positions. Then, to implement in our system the opportunity for as many parental visitations as possible, including us funding the travel and meal accommodation for the parents. We have set up special workshops for working with the parents, dealing mainly in increasing parenting skills and improving the relationship with their children, while empowering the parents. I chose to describe to you two of such special operations that we have developed: 1. Parents and Children Cooking Group - we suggested to parents, in phone calls and letters that they will participate in a joint cooking workshop for parents and children. The workshops include 10 parent and child couples. It is interesting to note that both men and women were registered. The workshops are supervised by a professional chef from our kitchen staff and a social worker. The groups meet once a week for three hours. In the first and a half hour, the chef instructs each parent and child to prepare a specific recipe when they receive all the ingredients and preparation utensils. At the same time, the social worker follows the processes and records points from the interaction between parents and children. After about an hour and a half they all sit to eat the delicate they prepared. In the last hour of the meeting, it's a parents' workshop only, under the guidance of the social worker, whose purpose is to promote and improve the parenting and communication skills between the parents and children, with the material for discussion based on processes that occurred during the activity with the children. 2. A soccer team shared by biological parents and children - through attachment to parents is similar as described in the cooking group. Each time, ten pairs of parents and children are chosen, who are usually fathers and sons (but sometimes daughters). The team is accompanied by a certified soccer coach and social worker (or another therapist). The setting and work processes are very similar to what was described in the cooking group. Yoav Appelboim CEO "Ahava" Children& Youth village FICE Israel yoave@ahava-v.org.il Triangular relationship between the child staying at the residential care center, his biological parents, and the care center.   {{page}} As a member of FICE International and member of the regional platform FICE Europe, FICE Serbia – Association of professionals for children and families support, as a national umbrella organization for institutions and other forms of alternative care, realized different activities on international, regional and national level in 2019. 1. On the international level FICE Serbia participated at the Seminar named “Services for children from disadvantaged areas and environments“, which was held on April 11th 2019 in Bucharest, as a part of FICE Inter annual CF meeting, where FICE Serbia took part with oral presentation to inform about the development and work of SOS counseling service for children and youth, that arose when Serbia was a vulnerable region after the war and in the process of transition, as one disadvantaged area. 2. Another activity of FICE Serbia was the participation at the Annual FICE Inter Federal Council where it gave its own contribution in selected conference topics regarding the strategies and future of FICE International On the regional level FICE Serbia took part in three important activities: 1. FICE Europe Board Meeting in Mainz, held in February 2019 where we participated, as representative in the board of the regional platform. In a discussion about the future of FICE Europe and the creation of ways how to overcome some unexpected issues like the ones that happened last year, such as the stepping down of a President, the loss of the web page, the stepping down of some Board members… etc. 2. FICE Serbia took part in the Assembly of FICE Europe in Bucharest, which was held in April 2019, during the FICE Inter CF, and the same topics were in focus as in the meeting in Mainz, but some new issues, were also discussed - such as new board members, the voting process, and the question about the future and the management of the regional platform. 3.FICE Macedonia 15th Anniversary, held in Skopje on May 2019, where a representative of FICE Serbia took part on behalf of FICE Europe and FICE Inter and congratulated Anniversary and informed the members of FICE Macedonia about the news and current situation in FICE Inter and FICE Europe. FICE Macedonia voted for new president, and Ms. Eleonora Peshevska was elected. She made a plan for developing the main activities with its members. On the national level FICE Serbia, as always, put focus on the development of its members which means improving the competencies of professionals who work directly with children and youth in alternative care. At the Annual Assembly we shared some information about future planned activities and agreed that support, this year should be oriented to specialists in the foster care field, because we have six regional centers and two new, in the process of establishing. After significant level of development of the Foster care system as main model of alternative care in Serbia, in the last two decades, in the last two years we noticed a stagnation in recruitment, campaigns and preparation programs for interested citizens. Part of the problem is the education of the new generation of foster care specialists and FICE Serbia, as carrier of the PRIDE Program for foster care and adoption offer the training for FC specialist in next period.In order to present values of PRIDE Program and its benefits, and to transfer knowledge about this example of best practice we organized “MINI PRIDE” training for representatives of FICE Serbia members.   (The article continues on the next page) FICE SERBIA - NEWS AND ACTIVITIES IN 2019  Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   sERBIA Sailing Camp Participants From July 2019 FICE Serbia was focused on the international partnership with FICE Netherlands member, Kinderperspectief, which organized (together with other partners) SAILING CAMP for care leavers. The project activities were supported by the Erasmus + Program of the EC and were held in Poland, in the middle of August. Eight people from Serbia, 6 young care leavers and two accompanying persons, spent one week near Gdansk and were part of a very interesting designed program with the purpose to prepare young people from alternative care for leaving care. Their experience will be presented, on September 24th at the exchange experiences session for FICE Serbia members, where many professionals in alternative care-members of FICE Serbia will take part. In the end of August, training activities and printing of Life books for more than 100 children was possible, due to support from the Dutch Foundation Life book for Youth. Eighteen candidates, from residential and alternative care(social workers, care givers, foster care advisors, etc) passed a two day-training and enjoyed not only in group work and acquiring new knowledge and skills, but also the opportunity to come back to their own childhood and remember some nice memories, smells, impressions and events from that period. Some of the future activities of FICE Serbia include: Life book for youth Camp, which will be held in Croatia, in the end of October 2019; “Academia”, professional exchange program between Dutch professionals and case managers of a Serbian Center for Foster Care and Adoption, which will be held in November 2019.   Continued: FICE SERBIA - NEWS AND ACTIVITIES IN 2019  {{page}} Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Annual Assembly of FICE Serbia, Belgrade, 2019. sERBIA Training activities “Life Book for Youth” for FICE Serbia members FICE Switzerland - new developments and projects  At the end of 2018, Rolf Widmer left the Executive Board as President of FICE Switzerland. Because he won the Hans Erni Prize (Congratulations!) in 2018, an exhibition was dedicated to his international engagement for children’s rights around the world. It was an honour for us to celebrate his departure as FICE Switzerland President together in his exhibition and we are delighted that he will remain with us as an honorary member. Since 2019, the Executive Board of FICE Switzerland is in the process of a generation change. Clara Bombach (science and research) and Christoph Keller (social worker in a children's and youth home) became Co-Presidents of FICE Switzerland. In the following we present a few selected focal points of our current work with best regards from Switzerland. A participatory study: „Creating Futures“: Under the direction of Dr. Anna Schmid, a 3 years study is realised together with young people in care in Hungary and Switzerland, that will help to identify and promote future prospects for children and young people in care. FICE Switzerland supports the study with great interest and is pleased about the outstanding, participatory research that involves young people intensively. We look forward to discussing first findings with FICE Switzerland members at our meeting in November 2019. For further information Quality4Children: the brochure produced by Quality4Children for presenting children's rights in a child-friendly way is no longer available in print. Quality4Children now plans to produce the brochure in a contemporary and more easily accessible way so that it can be interactively accessed online at any time. At present, there is still no funding available for this. We support the applications for funding and hope that the information will soon be available to children again. Celebrating 30 years UN Convention of the Rights oft he Child: FICE and Quality4Children will be present during a festive event in November 2019 in Bern, where we’ll have the honour to present and discuss our work with pupils from all over Switzerland in interactive workshops organised by UNICEF and others. International Seminar at Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW).: Since some years now, a Bachelor seminar has been taking place at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Social Work, on topics related to child and youth care around the world. In October 2019 we had the great pleasure of welcoming our wonderful colleague Merle Allsopp from South Africa. We have learned a lot and are happy about the great successes of ISIBINDI and Safe Parks. Thanks to the international network of FICE, the students were able to conduct interviews with colleagues from Brazil, the US, Jordan and Finland. The students gained insights into country-specific challenges of social work and got to know the similarities of challenges and commitment. SWITZERLAND {{page}} Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   FICE South Africa held its 22 nd Biennial Conference from the 2nd – 4th July 2019 in Durban in KwaZulu- Natal Province. This was historic in a sense that for the first time NACCW and the CYC-net held a joint conference. The theme of the conference was “Nation-building – one child at a time”. The conference year is coupled with a Biennial General Meeting (BGM) in which the Association presents a report to the members. The conference was attended by 1400 delegates who are practitioners and academicians in the child and youth care sector representing 28 countries. In addition, there was a youth conference which was held in parallel with the conference for practitioners with 127 youth delegates and 36 chaperones from all Provinces and abroad. The partnership between International and Canadian Child Rights Partnerships and NACCW led to a youth delegation from Brazil, Canada and South Africa representing International Canadian Child Rights Partnership to attend the conference. This conference was made possible by the partnership between NACCW and UNICEF South Africa. Amongst the dignitaries who attended were Prof. Emmanuel Grupper, FICE-International Co-President, and Mr. Cornelius Williams, Chief of Child Protection from UNICEF Headquarters. The various plenary presentations and speeches were rich, informative and educational. Once again, NACCW celebrated its networks and partners through the presence of the Global Social Network Alliance, FICE Africa, child and youth care associations, UNICEF representatives from some African countries, institutions of higher learning, non-governmental organisations, child and youth care centres and individuals. NACCW is pleased to be amongst partners who are committed to developing a children’s workforce in South Africa and sharing the long history and experience generated over the years. The Isibindi programme was once again referred to as a model that is able to be adapted to different situations where children require services. As an internationally acclaimed model for providing services to children especially in rural areas where there are limited resources, delegates enjoyed listening to the stories and presentations related to this model. On Monday before conference two mini-buses full of delegates enjoyed the experience of visiting an Isibindi site in the outskirts of Durban at Zizameleni Isibindi site at Mandeni village. The delegates shared with the child and youth care workers, interacted with the children and had an opportunity to visit the families of some of the beneficiaries. The partnership with CYC-net was beneficial as it was able to strengthen the long standing relationship that South Africa has enjoyed with CYC-net since its establishment. The delegates enjoyed having academicians present, some of whom are the authors of books used in child and youth care training, the delegates and students in particular who have read their work appreciated connecting and   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   SOUTH AFRICA (The article continues on the next page) FICE South Africa - projects and activities  {{page}} Continued: FICE South Africa  Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   {{page}} interacting with them. The delegates reported to have enjoyed the breakaway sessions which were of great quality. The presentations that were carefully selected were lined up to allow for enough time while at the same time members were able to get more from the presenters. The presentations were an exchange of local and international models, experience and knowledge. The opening and the closing of conference were graced by the youth who created a colourful and exciting hall through their different artistic banners accompanied by drumming. The youth left the practitioners conference in the morning of the first day after the opening session and returned on the last day to present their deliberations which included work done in their own regions since the past conference in 2017. The youth presented on challenges facing them, and proposed solutions. These included the abuse and neglect of children’s rights. The presentations kept the audience glued to the stage and battling with emotions. The use of the stage theatre brought out the reality of challenges experienced by youth. NACCW was thankful that some delegates from African countries stayed an extra day to participate in the FICE Africa meeting held on 5th July. The meeting which was attended by members of FICE Africa chapters (Zambia, Lesotho, Kenya and South Africa), UNICEF delegates from different countries including the USA, Global Social Services Alliance, Child and Youth Care Network (CYC-net) and FICE International and deliberated on a model to develop a children’s workforce in Africa to respond to child protection matters. As part of the outcome of the meeting a task team to take the work forward was constituted and all inputs will be incorporated to the model. A costed implementation plan for the model will be developed. The meeting agreed that the costing of the model must also show the “cost of inaction”. The meeting participants appreciated this ground breaking initiative and committed to support its further development and implementation. The delegates congratulated the NACCW for staging this wonderful event. It was a truly global conference. NACCW would like to thank UNICEF, CYC-net, FICE International, Global Social Service Alliance and all the other partners for making this conference a success.   SOUTH AFRICA 1ST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL, FAMILY AND SOCIAL EDUCATION AND INTERVENTION  {{page}} SPAIN Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Asociación Hestia for Family, Psychoeducational and Social Intervention and Research, this association, together with the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canarias organized the 1ST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL, FAMILY AND SOCIAL EDUCATION AND INTERVENTION in which FICE SPAIN was intensely involved. The conference took place in the Auditorio Alfredo Kraus in the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canarias from 21 to 23 March 2019. The conference aimed to reach a wide range of profiles in the professional and academic world: researchers and trainers, educators and students, managers, office clerks and directors working in the following fields: educational, psychological, legal, social and health intervention. The conference aimed to be a showcase to share experiences and research based on innovative suggestions to educate and intervene, from all areas, in a society that requires urgent changes. Over three days, the scientific programme was divided into technical presentations, guest symposiums, oral papers and posters. Nationally and internationally important presenters demonstrated advances in the three main conference topics: Family, School and Society. Several FICE Spain members, that represent a total of 10 autonomous communities in Spain, contributed to the Conference with presentations in the framework of one of the symposiums held on the topic: “Social transformation with and from the communities. An opportunity” and that was moderated by the President of FICE Spain. The following presentations were held by organizations members of FICE Spain: - Plataforma Educativa Foundation (Catalonia) made a presentation on Social mentoring for children at risk of exclusión (results of the EU funded project Sapere Aude). - Cooperative Agintzari (Basque Country) and Nueva Infancia Association (Valencia) presented good practices in Professional Foster Care. - Te Acompañamos Association, (Canary islands) presented a program for the empowerment and training of mothers in situation of social vulnerability. - Cooperative Kamira ( Navarra) presented its work on Family intervention at home. - Igaxes (Galicia) presented their experience in the involvement of the school and community work to achieve social inclusion The conference was considered a great success. Together with the Conference, a FICE Spain Assembly was held, with the contributions of the mayor of the Telde City Council.   Therapy in child care: the foundation of therapeutic work at the The Mulberry Bush School  (The article continues on the next page) The Mulberry Bush School, England, UK. The Mulberry Bush School is a residential school and therapeutic community providing specialist integrated therapeutic care, treatment and education to traumatised children aged 5- 13 and their families. Due to extreme anxiety inducing behaviours, stemming from severe social emotional, mental health and complex needs, the children are referred by Local Authorities from across the UK. Our aim is to re- integrate children back into an appropriate family, school and local community. As a result of early years and complex trauma, the children struggle to make meaningful relationships and develop a sense of belonging to their birth or substitute families. Without an early intervention these mistrustful, aggressive, chaotic and confused behaviours will be re-enacted in later life. Our work aims to strengthen the child’s relationship to their family and society, to break abusive cycles, and reduce the risk of offending. We offer education in its broadest sense; experiences of living and learning together in groups offer a ‘re-education in relationships’. Therapy in child care: the foundation of therapeutic work at the The Mulberry Bush School The School was founded on our current site in 1948. In the early days of the Mulberry Bush, Barbara Dockar-Drysdale and her young family shared the original farmhouse with a group of deprived children who had been placed in Oxfordshire during WW2 to keep them safe from the London blitz as part of the national evacuation campaign. Via monthly clinical consultations with Donald Winnicott, and later a Freudian psychoanalytic training, Dockar-Drysdale provided the children with one to one therapeutic sessions. Her husband Stephen, recently de-mobbed after war service, supported the enterprise by providing robust boundary setting - a ‘live’ authority for the group. We can imagine how this familial experience offered deprived children an experience of ‘Oedipal’ parental roles. In 1948 their work achieved School status, as a hybrid ‘special school and child guidance clinic’, and from thereon they were able to employ a few staff, and the school began to grow. Out of this experience Dockar-Drysdale developed the residential treatment methodology that she later named “the provision of primary experience” (1990). She conceptualised this work in a series of papers which were later published in her books ‘Therapy in Child Care’ (1968) and ‘Consultation in Child Care’ (1973). Robin Reeves, a former Principal of the school, and consultant child psychotherapist writes: ‘Dockar-Drysdale’s primary experience seems to be an amalgam of the Winnicott concepts of ‘primary home experiences’ and ‘primary maternal preoccupation’. The term encapsulates what Dockar-Drysdale came to see as the essential element in therapy for children who had missed out on that early maternal provision….her view of primary provision could be summed up by saying that it was a matter of the caring adult having to feel and act like a mother with her new born baby, and with the same preoccupation and sense of vulnerability. This is what the ‘frozen child’ required as an absolute condition of change’ (2002) Within this concept of “the provision of primary experience” Dockar-Drysdale carried out her most renowned work, defining different syndromes of deprivation, and formulating treatment approaches to these syndromes. Maurice Bridgeland (1971): “Dockar-Drysdale has done her most important work in seeking to explain the nature and needs of the ‘frozen’ or psychopathic child. The emotionally deprived child is seen as ‘pre-neurotic’ Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   UK {{page}} since the child has to exist as an individual before neurotic defences can form. The extent to which there has been traumatic interruption of the ‘primary experience’ decides the form of the disturbance. A child separated at this primitive stage is therefore, in a perpetual state of defence against the hostile ‘outer world’ into which he has been jettisoned inadequately prepared.” The early therapeutic milieu was managed by the staff who provided ‘close in’ lived experiences of containing and nurturing routines, along with robust behaviour management, through which the ‘authentic’ and chaotic child emerged. Attachment to (then ‘dependency on’) an adult was supported, and in the case of the ‘frozen child’ a localised regression to the ‘point of failure’ was therapeutically managed. Often a regular and reliable symbolic adaptation, termed a ‘special thing,’ was introduced within the relationship. This allowed the child an experience of primary adaptation to need, and an experience of the ‘rhythm’ of close bonding and ‘nursing’ with a primary carer: ‘’ it was this familial or social factor Dockar –Drysdale particularly attended to. It led her in due course to a greater appreciation of the therapeutic potential of ‘ordinary devoted carers’ within a setting such as the Mulberry Bush. She seized on the fact that, even without specific training and qualification as therapists, carers could become the critical focus of a child’s regression to dependency, provided that the requisite therapeutic support systems were in place’’ ( Reeves, 2002) Most often this symbolic adaptation would take the form of the child’s ‘focal therapist’ providing a food chosen by the child, such as a boiled egg or a rusk with warm milk. The child’s choice of food often had a significant primary connotation. As the use of the ‘special thing’ became embedded in the work, staff began to use this as a way of meeting the needs of the child. They found that the provision improved the child’s sense of security, reduced delinquency (stealing as self- provision to ‘fill up’), and the localised and protected time seemed to help children cope with their feelings of envy and jealousy when having to share the adult with other children in the group care setting. This ‘attachment’ model of meeting need, with special attention to symbolic communication, still underpins our work today. In Dockar-Drysdale’s view, for ‘unintegrated’ children the traditional ‘psychoanalytic hour’ was not enough, they required a total environment in which therapeutic interactions could take place within the routines of child care, she did not place the primacy of therapy as being outside of daily child care routines, hence the development of the concept and methods now known as ‘therapeutic child care.’ John Diamond {{page}} UK Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Continued: Therapy in child care: the foundation of therapeutic work at the The Mulberry Bush School  · the issues of children needs and protection of their rights. And now we see the following outcomes: · Increased the awareness level of authorities, related structures, and citizens in 5 ATCs; · Set up the mechanism of cooperation between the Child’s Services and local public organization within the DI reform; · Gathered valuable recommendations and requests from the participants (those requests are being processed); setting plans for future projects (the educational program for social workers in ATCs is running now, it aims to improve the quality and level of professionalism of the services for children and families); · Started the transformation process in the institution of one of the ATCs; · Reached out to more than 2000 people within the project. We believe that creation of new social services in local community will provide sustainable support for families and children in difficult living conditions and prevent further deterioration of families on the breadline and institualization of children. About Lviv Education Foundation: The activities of our charitable organization «Lviv Education Foundation» began in 2000 with the opening of the public library named after Vasyl Petrakh in the little town of Dobrotvir. In 2010 we started to support initiatives of the people, church, local NGO and charitable organizations in small communities and launched the program «Volunteering in parish communities». These were the first steps before starting the work throughout Ukraine. At that period, our main motto «Learning by doing» was created. This motto became the foundation for all the future projects. In 2014, after the liberation of Kramatorsk, almost all LEF team went to the East and began to rebuild houses and to help people who were the victims of the war. That is how our program "Building Ukraine Together" was founded. In the same year, as a result of our work two youth platforms were opened in the East «Vilna Khata» (Kramatorsk) and «Teplytsia» (Slovyansk). Their main purpose was the unification and activation of local youth. At that time another motto of our organization was created - "Guiding youth to action". Today we are big all Ukrainian organization leading more than 15 ongoing programs. We have more than 40 people employed and we engage more than 100 local communities every year. This year we were awarded by the Independent National Benefactor Rating for the amount of money spent for the charity and the number of volunteers involved. The mission of organization is: to develop Ukrainian society by creating and supporting a network of volunteers, social and educational initiatives. In our structure there are 3 main directions: 1. Community development department aimed to develop and support initiatives of the locals: NGOs, youth, church, local government in their communities and unite them to solve their own problems. 2. Social department - supports vulnerable groups of people and teach every member of the community how they can help. 3. Volunteer renovation camp “Building Ukraine together” (BUT) - engage Ukrainian youth into a network of active citizens through common work, travelling and non-formal education. Its aims to share the idea of volunteer movement like a way to develop society. Eventually, all projects of our organization are aimed at developing the civil society, working with communities to identify their problems, needs and potential. We cooperate with the church, the state and charity and public organizations. The period of reforms is a difficult time for any country. In our country it is also complicated by the war. However, we believe that we are very lucky to live in the period of change, to make these changes and to line people up. Our motto is «Be the change you want to see in the world». {{page}} Continued: Lviv Education Foundation - "Help the child by helping her family!" De-institutionalization in Lviv Region, Ukraine Ukraine (The article continues on the next page) Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Continued: Lviv Education Foundation - "Help the child by helping her family!" De-institutionalization in Lviv Region, Ukraine Ukraine {{page}} Eventually, all projects of our organization are aimed at developing the civil society, working with communities to identify their problems, needs and potential. We cooperate with the church, the state and charity and public organizations. The period of reforms is a difficult time for any country. In our country it is also complicated by the war. However, we believe that we are very lucky to live in the period of change, to make these changes and to line people up. Our motto is «Be the change you want to see in the world». Keystone Human Services, a FICE USA Member is also a member of ANCOR, the American Network of Community Options and Resources reformed. An International Committee was reformed at ANCOR about two years ago. The group recently took on an initiative in Puerto Rico, working to understand support to people with disabilities in the event of a natural disaster. There are also plans to develop a study group to travel to Moldova in the fall. In India, ten women in the northern region who are currently institutionalized will be considered for a community living program through Keystone Human Services International, Keystone Institute India, represented on the FICE USA Board. Keystone human Services International, Moldova Association has been the recipient of two awards through the Zero Project awards program held in Austria. {{page}} News from Keystone Human Services Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   Development of Quality Standards for professional alternative care settings  for children and youth in Austria   USA Information CIF National Branch or contact person in your country, or CIF Switzerland Elisabeth Fischbacher Schrobiltgen, President Kronengasse 11 CH-5400 Baden ++41 56 210 30 35 fischbacher@cif-switzerland.ch www.cif-switzerland.ch www.cifinternational.com CIF The Council of International Fellowship (C.I.F.) is a private, voluntary, non-profit, politically and religiously independent organization. It was founded in 1960 following the Cleveland International Program in the USA - later on Council of International Programs (CIP) and CIPUSA. The goal of CIF is to promote international understanding and world peace through intercultural training and exchange of experience for professionals in human services. Throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North and South America and Oceania more than 30 countries have established national branches. Most of them also run CIF International Professional Exchange Programs. International Professional Exchange The Swiss CIF International Professional Exchange Program 2020 is designed for 4-8 social workers and other professionals in closely related fields who are interested in sharing experiences in social work with children, youth and families in different settings. The program is organized in collaboration with FICE Switzerland (Fédération Internationale des Communautés Educatives). It is supported by local and national social services, the Swiss Association of Social Workers AvenirSocial and Universities of Applied Sciences, Department of Social Work. It is organized in line with the Manual for International Professional Exchange Programs of CIF International. • Participants will get general information and orientation on life in Switzer-land, including the political, social security, social welfare and educational systems. • They will participate in different workshops. Topics are social services around children, youth and families in the fields of public and private services for families, out of home care, health services and intercultural work. Presentations and discussions will be concentrated on particular fields along the needs of participants. The group will be looking particularly at different attitudes, methods and experiences. Participants get an introduction, visit social service facilities, exchange with their co-participants and reflect carefully on what they have seen and heard. • Exchange is a very important part of the whole program. Participants are asked to present information about the specific situation of their own workplace. Personal experiences during the program are compared and looked at from the perspective of the participants’ own backgrounds. Registration The registration needs to be received by CIF Switzerland by November 15, 2019. If there is a national branch or contact person for CIF in the participant’s country, the registration form (www.cifinternational.com/programs) must be sent there in time to allow the necessary steps. An interview with a representative of the national branch or contact person will be organized and a letter of reference will be attached to the registration form.