The head of the Third Family and Juvenile Division of the District Court in Bolesławiec Grażyna Słotwińska, distancing herself from the matter of funding for the children’s home, believes that closing the facility would be extremely harmful. It would worsen the already difficult situation of children requiring immediate assistance, while enforcing the court’s interim orders would become difficult or impossible.
Grażyna Hanaf: – What does cooperation between your division and the children’s home run by the Sisters of Saint Elizabeth involve?
Grażyna Słotwińska: – I have worked closely with the Children’s Home for almost six years, since the facility began operating under its current management and with its current staff.
Intervening in a child’s family situation is not a one-time act. After conducting evidentiary proceedings, the court issues decisions that may result in taking a child from their home and placing them in a facility under so-called foster care. These are very difficult decisions that must be made in the here and now.
Taking a child away from their family home does not resolve the matter. The child enters an institution. In addition to providing immediate care, work must be done so that in the future the child either returns to their family or enters foster care. This work involves regularly monitoring the child’s situation. We carry out part of this work, and the children’s home carries out the rest.
How would you assess this cooperation?
The Sisters care deeply for the children. The facility is meant to work toward the child’s return to their family, and that is precisely what it does.
The situation of children from the children’s home during the holidays is one example. When parents want to take a child from the facility, for example for Christmas Eve, they contact us. Sometimes they remember about it only the day before Christmas Eve. It is at such moments that the Sisters’ knowledge of and contact with the families of the children in their care are most valuable.
If I ask a Sister what contact the parents have with the child and need an opinion on something, I receive it from the Sisters quickly. I know that the Sisters are aware of what is happening in the children’s homes. During the holidays, when the family situation is not entirely clear, they visit and check the conditions in which the child is staying.
The Sisters work very actively on behalf of children who cannot return to their families during the holidays. They do everything they can for the children to spend the holidays with another family that is friendly with the Sisters. The Sisters seek out cooperating families who can provide a substitute for a home, so that the children feel that somewhere they are awaited and loved.
The issue of treating the children is also important. Children who have been neglected in terms of their health arrive at the facility, for example with fetal alcohol syndrome. These are children from families where the child’s health has been given a low priority. The Sisters have a great deal to make up for and often have to care for very ill children.
Assuming the worst-case scenario: there is no children’s home in the county. What would the consequences be?
In such a situation, the County Office would face increased responsibilities, as it is required to enforce the court’s ruling. The number of children requiring foster care would not decrease. I would add that we also cooperate well with the County Family Support Center. If the children’s home were no longer available, they would have to identify another place—another facility—where the child could be placed.
If such a child were taken from their family home for several months and then had to be sent somewhere farther away, it would cause unnecessary trauma. The child would have to change schools and their environment. That is why I believe that a children’s home in the county is essential.
Are there alternatives to a children’s home for the county?
At present, when it comes to foster care, family-based children’s homes are preferred over institutions such as a children’s home.
I am not trying to determine why, but in our county—apart from one emergency foster family and related foster families, such as aunts and grandmothers—there are no professional non-related foster families. I do not know whether there are no applicants, or whether this is a matter of limited social sensitivity or insufficient financial incentives.
Apparently, the County Family Support Center has trained staff who are supposed to recruit and train such families, but so far nothing has happened. There are no candidates. We lack places where a child can be placed for a short time. The need in this area is great.
Is the county responding to this in any way?
In a conversation with Deputy County Governor Stanisław Chwojnicki, there was only an assurance that there should be a place where children taken from their parents could be placed for several days, until the family comes forward or we take a closer look at the situation.
Sometimes we turned to the director Sister of the children’s home in situations when the police were standing outside her facility with a child taken into custody and had nowhere to take them. The Sister always relented and helped.
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(information: ii)