Implementation Period: August 2019 – August 2020

As part of the project “Raising Awareness and Strengthening Capacities in Alternative Care Services,” a sub-grant initiative from SOS Children’s Villages Albania and the TLAS organization under the project “Development of OSHCs for Foster Families in Albania,” funded by the European Union, in 2019-2020, ASET Center implemented the project “Raising Awareness and Strengthening Capacities in Alternative Care Services.”

ASET Center promoted alternative care services by increasing public awareness to ensure the provision of high-quality, standardized services for children without parental care, through the identification and training of potential foster families. A television spot with information on alternative care was created and broadcast. The project also aimed to increase interest in recruiting and involving families with the potential to become foster families in this social service, as well as the recruitment of a sufficient number of families who underwent the procedure at the Court of Tirana to become foster families.

The beneficiaries of the project were the social services staff, especially the Social Services Units within local government units, who were empowered to engage more in alternative social care services. The second target group was the community, which played an important ongoing role through the project’s awareness activities. However, the most significant direct beneficiaries of the project were the families with the potential to become foster parents. Through training sessions, these families were prepared and assisted in providing this service and in preparing all necessary documentation to continue the procedures at the Court. The most important beneficiaries in this project were the children without parental care. The project ensured that these children would live in families, avoiding institutionalization. By the end of the project, 5 children were placed in foster families.