About the Project

Let's give the children a helping hand at the point when they most need it!

The project makes the process of leaving the children’s home and starting in life easier for the young people.

• The day comes when we must stand on our own two feet …
• How do I do it? Where will I go? Where will I live? Where will I get money?
• Almost every time things don’t work out as I expected…
• Where was the mistake? What next? Will someone help me?
• It is pleasant to have somewhere to return to… Not everyone has that possibility…
• The offer of help at the right moment can change a young person’s whole life!

Help children enter into life with their best foot forward!

"We know a good friend in bad situations."

The aim of the project HELP ME START IN LIFE is to make it easier for the children leaving the children’s home to start their individual lives. This project is focused on young people leaving the children´s homes after either reaching adulthood or after finishing their studies. Helps as well with their studies and the preparation for their future career .

The project Help me start in life consists of three individual areas of help:

1. SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMME 

The aim of the programme is to give as many children as we can the possibility of carrying on with their studies so that they can achieve some qualifications, and therefore increase their chances of being employable on the job market and at the same time to strengthen the development of their personalities.
Provided that the child gets a chance to go forward in a field that fulfills him, he will have a many-fold greater chance of integrating into society and to succeed in independent life.
This programme is for children in the age group of 14 and up  -  children who await selection for high school where they will continue with their studies.

As part of the scholarship programme the child may get covered:

• School fees
• Boarding accommodation or accommodation on campus
• Travel fees
• School aids or necessary equipment
• Scholarship of Merit
• Motivational Scholarship
• Courses
• The rent for starter homes

Schoolarship program is not focused on the exceptionally gifted or exceptionally smart children only. On the contrary, it should help each child, that want after the end of primary school continue their studies on high school or college.

For more information – click here

2. STARTING PACKS

We are talking about basic household equipment that makes the start of children´s independent lives, after leaving the children’s homes, much easier. Starting pack consist of bedding, bed sets, bed sheets, bath towels, hand towels, tea towels, dining set, set of cutlery, pots, glasses, ironing board and iron, set of sweeping brushes, kitchen equipment,  vacuum cleaner, electric kettle and drugstore products.
The starting packs are assigned exclusively to the children who leave children ´s homes after the completion of the age of majority (18), or upon completion of their studies.
For more information – click here

3. Help young people at the start of their independent lives

The help isfocused to the children who leave children ´s homes after the completion of the age of majority (18), or upon completion of their studies. The project is intended to help these young people find suitable work, appropriate accommodation and, at the same time, provide assistance as they take their first steps in their independent life.
Children’s homes provide the children with a life which is, on the whole, without problems relating to material matters, therefore the difference at the point of leaving the home is all the more noticeable.
Most children on the edge of adulthood, no matter where they grew up, have the feeling that the “world is their oyster”, they are finally adults and nobody is going to tell them what to say and what they can and cannot do...
It is very difficult to prove to them that that is not the case until they reach that conclusion themselves…

Children who had the luck to grow up in functional families have the possibility of returning to the family nest and starting again, if their first start has been unsuccessful, mostly without consequences that would affect their whole lives. Children who have grown up in a children’s home do not have this option…
There are many situations that most of us have to deal with and resolve every day. We don’t realise what a problem it can be for these young people who have never met with these problems before, and therefore, understandably, they do not know how to deal with them.
Many of them eventually end up with their biological families, which were not and are not able to take care of them. Some end up on the street, it may happen in some cases, they choose illegal activity as a source of livelihood.
But it is really not just their fault! They don’t know how to behave otherwise and there is no-one who would show or advise them, or tell them what to do next…

Most of the children’s homes, in conjunction with social workers, try to help their wards when they leave the homes, but it is not within their power to watch over every child and help in every situation.
Those children´s homes who work with DEJME DĚTEM ŠANCI o.s. (LET’S GIVE CHILDREN A CHANCE)
inform us of the fact that a childen and how many are leaving children´s home in the school year.
DEJME DĚTEM ŠANCI o.s. (LET’S GIVE CHILDREN A CHANCE)therefore has the possibility of finding help for an specific child. Curently we are able to provide this assistance only to the children included into the Scholarship program or on request.
 

How you can help a child leaving a children’s home ?

• An offer of accommodation for a period on leaving the children’s home (in ideal circumstances, with the partial supervision of the child to check he is abiding by the house rules).
• Offers of work opportunities (ideally connected with being partially over-seen and with help available at the beginning of employment). It is necessary to set clear rules and insistent on them being followed. Give the child, in the event of failure, a second chance, but at the same time let them feel the effect of the rules being broken. Organise their salary to be paid, for example, at weekly intervals, so they have the best chance of learning how to deal with their finances.
• Contact to a regional volunteer (mentor) registered to DEJME DĚTEM ŠANCI o.s. (LET’S GIVE CHILDREN A CHANCE), who is capable of offering the necessary help to the children in the first months after leaving the children’s home. He will be in contact with the child and will help him in solving everyday issues after leaving the children’s homes (such as, writing their C.V.; evaluating offers of employment; signing rental and work contracts; registering with the unemployment office; setting up bank accounts etc.).
• The offer of help to a young person, a young family, or a young single mother without family support, in the shape of home visits (help with housework, in some cases with the children, help with resolving everyday situations).

It is possible to offer children work in the form of work-experience whilst still in the children’s home. If this is satisfactory to both sides, this form of collaboration can grow into a permanent position after leaving the children’s home.

Project Specifications

• Absolutely specific personal help, direct help of a specific young person.
• The choice of different forms of support which are within my abilities to provide (for example, an available living space to rent; possible employment offers; free time in which to help others etc.).
• The possibility of supporting a child who, in some way, you identify – for example, professionally, hobbies etc.
• The possibility of a non-specific donation to a project in the event that, in some way, the sponsor was impressed but it was not possible personally to offer the necessary help. These donations will be used to support the project and in some cases to support the volunteers connected to the project.