Professional family work prevents break-up

There are many factors that put families under pressure. When everyday problems pile up, it often takes just one additional burden, such as unemployment, loss of housing, illness, separation of parents or a death in the family, to tip the overall balance. In the current era of permanent crises, this is all too understandable."

It is not always the case that children have to be separated from their parents when families find themselves in difficult circumstances. We are convinced that in many cases it is possible for families to stay together if they receive the appropriate professional support in time.
SOS Children's Villages does not only come into play when children can no longer live with their parents. "We support families so that they don't break up in the first place. We are convinced that in many cases it is possible for families to stay together if they receive the appropriate professional support in good time," says Magdalena Frommelt, Managing Director of SOS Children's Villages Liechtenstein.

Support at home through mobile family work

One form of support is mobile family work in Austria or Germany. Family counsellors from SOS Children's Villages visit families under stress at their homes several times a week. There are appointments together with the children and appointments with the adults, where there is also room for things that occupy the parents.

Together with the families, skills and new solution strategies are developed so that parents can better deal with crisis situations in the future. The type of help is closely oriented to the individual needs of the families. In 2021, around 1,100 children and their families received mobile care from SOS Children's Villages in Austria alone.

Together with the parents in the SOS Children's Village

Another preventive offer is parent-child living. Here, whole families - i.e. children together with their parents or one parent - move into an SOS Children's Village flat. There, they are cared for, accompanied and strengthened by a team of educators and family counsellors. "The families are relieved and receive important support with the challenges of everyday life," Magdalena Frommelt explains the offer. After about two years, in the best case scenario, the family's care is gradually terminated and the family is strengthened to lead an independent life. In 2021, around 130 children and their parents were cared for within the framework of parent-child living throughout Austria.
 
Focus on preventive measures

The work pays off: around two-thirds of the families who were cared for by SOS Children's Villages on a mobile basis manage to stay together. Around three quarters of all families in the parent-child home can be released to lead an independent life. This not only saves the children and families concerned unnecessary suffering, but is also the much more favourable concept compared to so-called out-of-home care, in which the children have to be separated from their parents.