Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion ends one three-year cycle, new one begins
Yesterday the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion concluded eight of its three-year collaborations with local governments to address the issue of social exclusion. Thanks to these agreements, many new services, jobs and other support activities are now being run by these towns and local organizations.
The towns that have been collaborating with the Agency for the last three years are: Hodonín, Kadaň, Kolín, Krupka, the Mělník district, Sokolov, Vejprty a Větřní. "The current explosive situation, particularly in socially excluded places, is very complicated for the people living both in and near those neighborhoods. I believe that by offering collaboration and help to towns, the Agency and the Government can assist with a genuine, gradual solution to these problems. Our thanks go to the mayors and politicians who decided to go into the less easy process of attempting to do something," says Czech Human Rights Minister Jiří Dienstbier.
"Our collaboration with the town of Kadaň, for example, was exemplary thanks to the town leadership’s great activity and willingness. During a brief time we succeeded in realizing many activities there that are significantly changing the situation of people in socially difficult situations," said Martin Šimáček, director of the Agency.
Kadaň succeeded in employing 187 people who had long been out of work, helped 28 children from excluded families get ready for primary school through preschool clubs, and enrolled 20 such children in nursery schools. A total of 95 parents got involved in pro-family services, 82 school-aged children began attending hobby groups, and 180 children and youth became involved in the activities offered by drop-in facilities.
Thanks to these efforts, the crime rate among juvenile perpetrators has fallen by 49 % during the past two years in Kadaň. In the locality of Prunéřov, several kilometers outside the town, the Social Services Center was reconstructed.
The center offers services for families with children, counseling on debt and job searches, and offices for those who do social work locally in the field. The town also increased the quality of the housing in the apartments in Prunéřov for tenants who are not in debt and meet their obligations.
Local residents contribute to cleaning and repair work there and today every apartment building has a caretaker to address small repairs and maintain order. The town leadership and that of its departments regularly meet with the tenants in Prunéřov in their buildings, a program in place for a second year now.
During the past two years, back rents owed in Prunéřov have fallen by 46 %. "The Agency helped us primarily by managing to put together our rather fragmented notions about how to proceed in many areas and giving us a direction in which we can now continue," said Mayor of Kadaň Jiří Kulhánek.
In the northern Bohemian town of Krupka, more than 30 jobs were created for long-term unemployed people as part of a transparent employment system the Agency helped the town introduce. A school playground was reconstructed and opened to the public and a leisure zone with small benches was constructed with contributions from local residents.
A drop-in facility for children and youth was also established in the town. "I got here thanks to a Labor Office program that hired me. I prepare and serve the lunches, I wash the dishes, and I do the laundry," says Marta Hanzlíková, who has been working for nine months in a public benefit job at the Sluníčko Nursery School in Krupka and who now will be able to stay there thanks to the Labor Office subsidizing her position.
The town of Sokolov has significantly focused on supporting schools. In four of its five primary schools, the position of teaching assistant for pupils with social disadvantage has been established.
The assistants are in the classrooms to work with pupils who need their support in some parts of instruction. Thanks to a project designed by the town in collaboration with the Agency, three new school psychologists and five special educators will begin working in the nursery and primary schools this September.
The Agency has also helped the town address the situation that arose as a result of the closure of a primary school that had been attended by more than 200 pupils, most of them from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. These children were successfully re-enrolled into other local schools and the relevant support was arranged for them.
The position of a field social worker employed by the local council was also established in Sokolov. Lastly, a social enterprise called "Srdce a čin" (Heart and Action) was created to focus on employing the long-term unemployed.
The town of Kolín managed during its collaboration with the Agency to ensure that its existing social services were functioning properly and established the position of school psychologist and special educator each of the six primary schools in the town. The so-called Merit System (Záslužný systém) was also created for accessing housing outside of the socially excluded locality; Martin Prokop of the public benefit corporation "Prostor plus" (Space Plus) reports that "In the socially excluded locality of Zengrovka this made it possible for people who met the requirements to move out of the locality and into normal housing in the town of Kolín."
In the Mělník district the Agency focused in particular on the villages surrounding the town of Mělník, as that is where the concentration of excluded localities is greatest. "It’s mainly the Spomyšl locality, we are working intensively with them. People commute there several times during the week to work with both adults and children," said Jana Matajsová of the Mělník Council’s Department of Social Affairs and Health Care.
In collaboration with the town, the Agency has done its best to involve community residents in the employment process and assisted with resolving their debt situations. People who owed the town back fees for garbage removal have now been put on payment plans.
Matajsová says local wells have been cleaned and that building maintenance and public order around the housing has improved. "Our collaboration with these eight towns has proven that during the three years that are now allocated for collaboration with the Agency, the situation in individual places can change for the better in a significant way," says Agency director Martin Šimáček.
"We are satisfied with our results in most towns – in some places the collaboration was satisfactory but we still did not manage to solve the main, burning problems within the time frame. In Větřní the housing issue remains open, so we will be collaborating with the town in a limited way in the future through what we call distance support. In Vejprty the collaboration was ultimately reduced to just one extensive project providing social services in one place. However, we are glad about that, the existing capacity of the social services there was insufficient," the director says.
Beginning today the Agency will begin collaborating with nine new towns and villages. The Agency currently collaborates with a total of 26 towns around the country, where it helps local councils become cognizant of the problem of social exclusion and establish local procedures to solve it.
Who has been helped with Agency support?
Petr Mačo, Kadaň
Thanks to his cooperation with a local social worker, Petr Mačo has paid up his back rent. He and his family were then able to move into a bigger, nicer apartment in Prunéřov.
After six months debt-free, Mr Mačo became entitled to the installation of new linoleum and vinyl windows in the unit. The town employs him as a crime prevention assistant, thanks to which he can regularly pay his rent and utilities.
Věra Podhorská, Krupka
Věra Podhorská was unemployed for almost six years. In 2013 she got involved with the transparent employment system, thanks to which she has been employed for a year now as a janitor and playground manager at a primary school.
The system guarantees her employment for at least two years. The aim is for her to regain work skills and a better chance to compete on the open labor market.
