Beschrijving van de organisatie

The Daily Care Center for Children and Youth DC Ω is a preventive social welfare program of the Gorenjska Social Work Centre, Unit Škofja Loka, which started in September 2007 and is open for children and youth each business day between 1 pm and 7 pm. We have two units: one on Partizanska cesta and the other one on the other side of the city in Podlubnik.

Škrlovec - Daily Center for Kids and Families is a preventive social program of the Gorenjska Social Work Centre, Unit Kranj, which started in March 2000 and is open each business day between 10 am and 6 pm. Our center is located in the old city center Kranj on adresse Škrlovec 2.

Our 2 programs are primarily intended for children and adolescents from Škofja Loka and Kranj between the age of 6 and 18 and their parents, who are deprived of normal family life experience, with behavioral, emotional, learning difficulties, and other needs, seeking support and assistance. Occasionally also children and adolescents without the abovementioned difficulties participate in our activities. DC Ω and Škrlovec are very well attended. There are currently around 100 children and adolescents included in each program.

The aims of both programs are:
- to reduce and prevent social exclusion and its negative consequences (eg. deviational behavior),
- positive self-image building,
- getting a sense of acceptance and security,
- school record improvement, acquisition of learning habits, to eliminate dislike of school work and school in general,
- active problem-solving in the domestic environment and involvement of entire families in the program,
- to meet socializing needs,
- to improve communication skills,
- learning to accept differences,
- social network spreading according to our users' needs,
- improvement of working habits and assuming responsibility.

With the help of professional workers, public employees, and volunteers we offer learning assistance (DC Ω and Škrlovec). Both units of DC Ω at children’s homes as well. We help them make their homework, we enable them to find useful information in books or on the Internet and stimulate them to acquire basic computer literacy. Furthermore, we help to strengthen their social network and enable them to relax. In Škrlovec and both units of DC Ω, we daily offer interesting workshops such as sports and recreation, relaxation, creativity, cooking, theatre, social skills workshops ... as well as various trips, camps, courses, lectures, etc. The purpose of all these activities is to equip a young person for life by developing their work habits, assuming responsibility, and social skills training. We strive to improve the conditions for children’s development within their families, to assist with their integration into the social environment, and to avoid behavioral deviations. In the program Škrlovec are also included older youngsters who need support in the field of finding jobs, solving problems with accommodations, becoming parents ... Program Škrlovec is offering language course for kids and parents, which mother language is not Slovenian language. We cooperate with various local organizations (free-time activities, health care/school system ...) and different regional organizations.

Implementation of the program DC Ω and Škrlovec is a combination of individual and teamwork. Our goal is to satisfy the need for acceptance and belonging, which according to Glasser are the strongest child’s needs. On this basis, children can develop self-confidence which enables them to include in society easier throughout their lives, which is in the individual’s as well as in the local community and society’s best interest.

Since 2011 DC Ω has expanded the program with a new method involving volunteers with therapeutic dogs. Our users accompany them for walks. With animal help, we are helping improve an individual's concentration, consistency, order, attitude towards animals, people, environment, self-esteem, responsibility, etc. We have devoted more attention to parents, we integrated them more systematically into our activities with children and adolescents, and prepared some programs for them.

The programs DC Ω and Škrlovec are enabled by the manager in each daily care center and professional workers. The centers also run a public work program named Social integration of particularly vulnerable groups. Colleagues from this program assist with the activities in DC Ω and Škrlovec (individual and teamwork). We also cooperate with ESC and 18 local volunteers who are most valuable to us.

As the number of children and adolescents involved in this program is very high, additional help from volunteers from abroad would be very beneficial, not only in sense of additional workforce, but also in terms of knowledge and good practices exchange, constructive ideas, and experiences ... This is also a very good way of learning about other cultures by first hand and to present our culture values through the ESC volunteers in Europe.