Project Activities in the Function of Developing the Social Welfare System of the Republika Srpska

Abstract

The projects that were implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the end of the war in the field of social, family and child protection, and which were implemented with financial support by nongovernmental organizations in cooperation with social work centers, were one of the key mechanisms
for the development of a mixed model of social protection. One of them is the project “Early Detection of Children with Special Needs and Their Developmental Problems”. The results of this project, which we present in this paper, have become an integral part of the systemic solutions that have improved the field of social, family and child protection in the Republika Srpska. The project was jointly implemented by the non-governmental organization “Korak dalje” (Srbac) and social work centers, and it affirmed a
new approach in working with children with disabilities and their families. Favoring field work, affirming the social instead of the medical model of disability assessment, introducing analytical and research activities in social work centers, maintaining local databases on children with disabilities, establishing a multisectoral approach in providing support to families, are just some of the results of this project that have become part of the systemic solutions in social protection in the Republika Srpska. Concrete results have also been achieved in the field of greater social inclusion of children with disabilities: the number of children included in support systems has increased, the number of children who have not passed the
commission assessments has decreased, the number of families that have started to continuously use the rights and services of the social and child protection system has increased, new services appropriate to the developmental needs of children have been introduced, daycare centers have been opened, municipal parents’ associations have been formed, etc. The project has also reduced the stigmatization of children and families through increased visibility of their problems in the community.