The quality standards of the fostering process and its finalization: The intervention program Projet'Ar-te in analysis

Regarding the international and European treaties frame, including the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Millennium Development Goals, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Charter of... [ view full abstract ]

Regarding the international and European treaties frame, including the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Millennium Development Goals, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the Quality4Children Standards represent an important quality benchmark for the elaboration of children’s and adolescents’ protection and promotion policies. In this paper Quality4Children Standards are used as a framework reference for design, implementation and evaluation of the quality indicators of the Projet’Ar-te, an intervention program which comprises the fostering process, its finalization and even the support process after the fostering. In this context, Projet’Ar-te: Challenges for change in the foster system is analysed. This consists of an institutional process of socioeducational and psychosocial intervention to promote autonomy, during and after fostering process, which is viewed as an instrument that ensures that the rights of the children and adolescents are respected in foster homes. The impact of this project is placed in the safe exit of the foster home, in which it is explicitly ensured to each girl that it is possible to maintain the affective relationships with home staff and access to many types of support after the fostering process, continuing to contribute in the girl’s autonomization and social integration process. Projet’Ar-te is a project financed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in the aim of the Gulbenkian Program of Human Developmnent - At-risk Children and Adolescents Program (2012-2015). Along this project it is proposed: (i) to show Projet’Ar-te as a project that works as an opportunity to “rethink” the quality of the socioeducational and psychosocial interventions practiced during and after the fostering process, always taking into account the children's rights; (ii) to reflect about the application of the international benchmark Quality4Children Standards (FICE, IFCO & Aldeias Infantis SOS, 2007), as a set of norms that grant the articulation of protection, promotion, fostering and departure of the institution; (iii) to demonstrate the operacionalization of the guidelines created for the finalization of the sheltering process, as a guaranty of the respect for the children's rights, presenting a support and accompaniment follow-up structure that Projet’Ar-te integrates in its practices: an institutional response of support for the girls after their foster period.

Key words: Children's rights, quality of the fostering process, socioeducational intervention, psychosocial intervention