News
Discussion about Alternative Child Care
The Alliance of Alternative Child Care was founded in September 2011, uniting 8 organizations with the aim to create a more active cooperation with policy makers as well as to promote an exchange of experiences among practitioners of childcare. One of the organizations of the Alliance is the Latvian Foster Family Association.
The vision of the Alliance is to ensure that quality care corresponds to the needs of a child as well as in a family environment for every orphan or child left without parental care in Latvia.
Purpose of Alliance activities:
1) To promote the development of different services of alternative child care;
2) To reach the standard that children up to the age of 3 are provided alternative care according to their specific needs within a family environment.
3) To improve the quality of services of alternative care, improving the system of support and training for the guardians, fosters families, adoptive parents and specialists of other types of care, and to ensure that childcare is aimed at the needs of the child and that the rights of the child are respected. The Alliance meets every month, and the last meeting was held on 18 October 2013. The main discussion during the meeting was about guardianship related to the planned changes in the Civil Law, as these changes will prevent people who are not relatives to become guardians. The majority of the Alliance partners have the opinion that guardianship should be definitely retained as one of the forms of care, because it is necessary to promote development of various forms of alternative childcare in Latvia.
None of the forms of care should be restricted, as guardianship has its advantages compared with foster families and adoption. The main advantages are the possibility to keep contact with the biological parents of the child and keep rights to the family inheritance for the biological children of the guardian, etc. In addition, all parties present were unanimous that guardians should receive training before receiving a child into their home, as well as sufficient support.
At the same time the society "SOS Children's Villages Latvia", foundation “Grasi Children's Village", charity "Agency of Social Services" and society of professional foster families "Tereze" are ready to support the proposed changes in the Civil Law. Their opinion is based on the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children adopted by the UN, which states that guardianship should be provided by the child’s extended family, not strangers. However, it was pointed out that if the law is changed, it should be immediately evaluated as an adequate replacement. As well, the following should be considered: What is the overall system for evaluation? What kind of training and support should guardians receive? How to avoid the situation that even more children are being placed at institutions?
Alliance has its web page - http://alianseberniem.lv/lv/left/
— March 26, 2014
The Alliance of Alternative Child Care was founded in September 2011, uniting 8 organizations with the aim to create a more active cooperation with policy makers as well as to promote an exchange of experiences among practitioners of childcare. One of the organizations of the Alliance is the Latvian Foster Family Association.
The vision of the Alliance is to ensure that quality care corresponds to the needs of a child as well as in a family environment for every orphan or child left without parental care in Latvia.
Purpose of Alliance activities:
1) To promote the development of different services of alternative child care;
2) To reach the standard that children up to the age of 3 are provided alternative care according to their specific needs within a family environment.
3) To improve the quality of services of alternative care, improving the system of support and training for the guardians, fosters families, adoptive parents and specialists of other types of care, and to ensure that childcare is aimed at the needs of the child and that the rights of the child are respected. The Alliance meets every month, and the last meeting was held on 18 October 2013. The main discussion during the meeting was about guardianship related to the planned changes in the Civil Law, as these changes will prevent people who are not relatives to become guardians. The majority of the Alliance partners have the opinion that guardianship should be definitely retained as one of the forms of care, because it is necessary to promote development of various forms of alternative childcare in Latvia.
None of the forms of care should be restricted, as guardianship has its advantages compared with foster families and adoption. The main advantages are the possibility to keep contact with the biological parents of the child and keep rights to the family inheritance for the biological children of the guardian, etc. In addition, all parties present were unanimous that guardians should receive training before receiving a child into their home, as well as sufficient support.
At the same time the society "SOS Children's Villages Latvia", foundation “Grasi Children's Village", charity "Agency of Social Services" and society of professional foster families "Tereze" are ready to support the proposed changes in the Civil Law. Their opinion is based on the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children adopted by the UN, which states that guardianship should be provided by the child’s extended family, not strangers. However, it was pointed out that if the law is changed, it should be immediately evaluated as an adequate replacement. As well, the following should be considered: What is the overall system for evaluation? What kind of training and support should guardians receive? How to avoid the situation that even more children are being placed at institutions?
Alliance has its web page - http://alianseberniem.lv/lv/left/