Paper
Domino 2 Project: individualized education support for parenting skills
- issue: Issue 3 / 2008
- authors: Luca Sommadossi, Silvana Rossi
- keywords: Italy
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abstract
Background. The Domino2 project is the continuation of a pilot project financed by Law 285/1997 that offers policies for supporting birth families and foster families. The project was proposed in 2003 by the voluntary organization, "Associazione Comunità Famiglie Accoglienti" (association of families) together with the social services department of the Municipality of Trento, the Association Murialdo and the Group for Family Foster Care of the Province of Trento. The project is being carried out at the moment in the District of Trento.
Factors emerging from the first three years of the experimental project have provided the opportunity for review and incorporation of new characteristics that are to some extent different from those of the pilot project. For example, we have adopted a broader approach, focusing not only on the different types of interventions in fostering a child, but also focusing on the interventions relevant to all the different conditions that can be found in cases of removal of children from their families.
We began to work first on the evaluation of the efficacy of the type of intervention by gradually applying different tools and innovative procedures for evaluation. In part we had tried these out already in the evaluation of former Law 285/97 projects in the province of Trento, but we also tried these out in the "Domino2" project.
Purpose. The project intervenes to help the parents of the children living away from their families who are in residential settings or in foster families or in other types of services located in the Province of Trento. It supports those parents who need help with their parenting skills as long as the conditions exist to do this. Moreover when financial and human resources are available, the project can also offer to try to avoid the removal of the child from his/her birth family.
The pedagogical and educational intervention follows the parents in their daily routine and takes into consideration their behavior and relationships toward their children. The intervention helps them to understand the needs of their children, to improve their parental response, to improve the quality of caring and of the family relationships by supporting their self-esteem.
The project includes an operational and institutional level. The operational level is delivered by an educational team from the Murialdo comprising a coordinator and two part-time practitioners. Additionally the operational level is supported by external and internal professionals (psychologists and/or social workers) for supervision and consultation on cases.
The educational team collaborates with social services who assign the cases that need intervention. It ensures periodical meetings with the other private and public parties involved with the cases, in order to plan and evaluate the intervention.
There is also an institutional group made up of representatives of the different organisations involved, namely the Murialdo, the social services department of the Municipality of Trento, the social policy section of the Autonomous Province of Trento and other bodies making referrals. This team meets twice a year to evaluate and monitor the cases, to share information and to develop training proposals.
Key findings. Annual evaluation is planned on the following: the goals, the recipients of interventions, the partnership networks developed, the competencies acquired by the recipients of interventions, evaluation and learning, use of the funding, additional resources, value-added factors.
For this type of evaluation different indicators will be used, elaborated in detail by the educational and institutional team, using an evaluation framework that allows for the analysis of the goals achieved, by referring to the objectives and results that were planned. Another element, currently subject to experimentation, is an interview with the family by an external psychologist at the end of the project intervention.. In relation to the 2006 data, the following are the main quantitative results:
Out of ten families:
- two families have had their children returned from fostering or other interventions;
- five families have had their children removed;
- two families have their children in temporary fostering;
- one family is receiving preventative support.
The project is relatively new and therefore it does not yet provide enough qualitative and quantitative data to give a statistical overview.
Quantitative data. In relation to the 2006 activities, the available data show that:
- in all cases an initial agreement was developed and accepted, setting out the responsibilities and the individual education plan over a period of 4-6 months. For all the cases there a record keeping in the form of a diary with observations and sixth monthly evaluation and an introductory meeting at which the educators could gather information on the family situation from the social services are organised;
- at least two thirds of the plans, coordinated with social services, that predicted the development of more informed and skilled parents, achieved the anticipated results;
- all cases were subject to evaluation meetings by social services and the organization every two months;
- the institutional group met every two months with 80% attendance.
Qualitative data. The framework of networking allowed the biological family to feel that it was the main focus of the project and this allowed parents to regain parenting skills and eliminated the risk of their marginalization. We had the opportunity to verify the benefits that this process of intervention gave to all, but especially to the biological family. They felt part of the process, and supported as people who could offer resources and not be seen just as presenting problems. This emerged from factors such as an improved parental self-esteem, greater self confidence and a greater sense of trust toward the services. The parents' roles improved in relation both to other family members and to those outside the family. They were more attentive to their children's needs, they had a better capacity and willingness to collaborate with the educational agencies, better social skills to relate to various services and a greater capacity for self control.
Implications and recommendations. The considerable added value of this project is that finally, when we consider the possibility of foster care or other types of care, we place the most emphasis on the family of origin, and not just on the foster family, the child and other elements. We consider different aspects of the biological families, not only their complexities and problems, but also their resources and their potential. Working within this framework allows us to consider the meaning of the removal of a child from the family as a period that also offers the potential for growth for the family, and for the network of all those involved.
Key references
AA.VV. (2004). Sistemi di valutazione del lavoro con le famiglie. Padova: Fondazione E. Zancan.
Canali, C., Colombo, D. A., Maluccio, A. N., Milani, P., Pine, B. A., Warsh, R. (2001). Figli e genitori di nuovo insieme. La riunificazione familiare. Padova, Fondazione E. Zancan.
De Ambrogio, U. (Ed.). (2003) Valutare gli interventi e le politiche sociali. Roma: Carrocci.
Contacts: Luca Sommadossi, Comunità Murialdo, Via Endrici 27 - Trento, E-mail:direzione@murialdo.taa.it or domino@murialdo.taa.it, Phone 0461 231320 - 3471785419.