"Established center for families of children with maladjusted behavior and children who were victims of violence"

The Association Parents and JU Children's Home Mladost in Bijela jointly founded and established the first family center with comprehensive services for families of children with maladjusted behavior and children who were victims of violence, announced today from the Association Parents.

The announcement adds that the Family Help Center was established as part of the project "Fight against violence against children through the establishment of the first Support Center in Montenegro", which the Parents Association and the Ju Children's Home Mladost jointly implement as part of the IPA Support for Employment, Social Inclusion and Social Entrepreneurship , financed by the EU and co-financed by the Government of Montenegro.

"The center represents a unique system of support for families from all Montenegrin municipalities, and the main goal of its launch is to improve the protection of the Montenegrin community through the provision of services focused on families, especially those with children who have behavioral difficulties, as well as families whose children are victims of violence. The project primarily targets families - parents/guardians of children with maladaptive behavior and child perpetrators and victims of violence and their parents. Through the functioning of the Help Center in Montenegro, the support system for families of children with maladaptive behavior will be improved, through encouragement to change their behavior. They currently do not have systemic support and very often, after reporting violence, they experience additional victimization in the system. Therefore, there is no continuous and high-quality work with victims of violence and there is not enough institutional capacity to introduce new services, given the fact that even the existing ones, in a large number of cases, are not fully functional," he points out. are in communication.

The Association of Parents said that with the establishment of the Center for the provision of support and assistance in Montenegro, families will for the first time have access to a professional team that will work with parents and children, combining several types of support.

"The center will provide three types of services, which are coordinated and adapted to the needs of users: counseling services for parents, counseling services for children and parenting programs. The establishment of the Center was preceded by the organization of basic training Family Lab for professionals in the field of psycho-social protection of families and children with maladaptive behavior, as well as families and child victims of violence. The two training modules were implemented in cooperation with the Familly Lab Association from Serbia, and are based on the family values ​​of the famous Danish psychotherapist Jesper Jul," the announcement reads.

They state that the Family Help Center started working in February.

"With its establishment, the existing human and spatial capacities in the area of ​​preventive action are strengthened, but new services are also introduced. The center unites nationally licensed SOS lines for parents and children run by the Association Parents and JU Children's Home Mladost in Bijela. The SOS lines are free, confidential and anonymous, available to all citizens in the country, providing support in emergency situations and serving as a preventive tool in communication with parents and children. The free SOS Parental Line of the association Parents - 080 888 888 is available to parents/guardians/fosters and all persons in contact with children, every working day from 9 a.m. to 15 p.m. The SOS phone for children and young people at the Children's Home Mladost provides confidential counseling, support or help to children and young people available by calling 116 111," the announcement reads.

The Parents' Association stated that the new services at the Center work proactively to strengthen parenting skills, alleviate the consequences of maladaptive behavior and encourage changes in unacceptable behavior patterns.

"These services include individual counseling for children, individual and family counseling for parents. In addition, within the Center, programs of group work, i.e. support for parents through parenting programs for children from 2 to 9 years old, as well as interactive group support workshops for parents will be implemented and teenagers between the ages of 10 and 17. The program is intended for parents who want to improve communication and the quality of their relationship with their child, but also solve a specific challenge/problem when it comes to parenting. In this way, the parent practices new skills on a specific example, which later can be applied to all other difficulties in upbringing. In addition, by solving a specific problem, the parent changes the entire relationship with the child," said the Association of Parents.

They also said that the plan is to create two licensed training programs for professional workers in the field of education and social protection in Montenegro, which will be used to strengthen the professional capacities of professional workers in the future, working with vulnerable families.