Foster care - Centri di Ateneo
Transcript
Foster care - Centri di Ateneo
Foster care: what is the emerging picture? [2013]-[2016] Research group: Raffaella Iafrate, Ivana Comelli, Ondina Greco Abstract Today, the practice of foster care in Italy is deficient with respect to the actual needs. At the basis of the difficulties in promoting foster care as a concrete response to the support needs of a minor are two main causes: the limited number of families willing to take in a foster child and the difficulties of the persons involved to make a cultural, economic and organisational investment that will implement the foster system itself. In light of the above, the project launched by the Cariplo call for tender “Promuovere e sostenere reti per l’affido familiare” (Promote and support foster home networks) has been developed, implemented by the association ASCI (lead partner) and the Centro di Ateneo Studi e Ricerca sulla Famiglia (University Centre for Family Studies and Research) of the Catholic University of Milan. The project, which is based in Como, assumes the form of a research-action that has enabled us to enter the world of foster care in order to investigate the current situations of foster caring and synergetically promote a hospitality culture. The in-depth investigation into the theme of perception of foster care encourages a process of awareness of the problem in the population and also supports the adoption of best practices in the field of foster care. An ad hoc questionnaire was administered to all the parents and teachers of nine comprehensive schools in the province of Como to investigate the awareness and perceptions of foster care. Administration was accompanied by a number of meetings of presentation of and awareness raising to the participation in the project, aimed at parents and teachers, and we tried to involve some of the key authorities of the city (the mayor, councillors, principal…) in order to ensure maximum participation in the research. The first results obtained from the data analysis (still in progress) on the first questionnaires collected (responses from four comprehensive schools are still to arrive) highlighted the need for developing information and training campaigns on the subject of foster care. In particular, in order to promote and sustain a culture of hospitality and the adoption of best practices with regard to foster care, proposals for training programmes for the teachers of the nine comprehensive schools involved have been put forward, together with the organisation of a conference for the presentation of the results of the research to share with the operators involved in the project and with the population of the area.