Childhood is a time that we all remember with a smile and always want to go back. Even for a moment, even for a moment…

Simple things often take us back: the smell of apple pie, the freshness of the morning, strawberries picked with grandma, beloved toys…

Our goal is to create a home for foster children full of the smell of cake, hugs and lots of love, where they feel safe, always know that someone is waiting for them, hugs them, says the word love, wipes away a tear, comforts them, encourages them, pats their heads, reads them a bedtime story, cuddles them and always wish you the sweetest dreams…

Our vision is to be a high-quality, modern community that ensures the well-being of children.

THE MAIN ACTIVITIES OF THE CARE CENTER are based on the goal that children live in families capable of properly taking care of them, with guardians or adoptive parents, and if this is not possible – in a community close to the family – in community foster homes. The center provides assistance not only to children left without a biological family, but also to their foster families – guardians on duty, social guardians, foster relatives, adoptive parents, as well as children’s parents, with the aim of returning the children to the family.

THE PURPOSE OF THE CARE CENTER is to ensure that all children who have lost parental care, adopted children, children under the care of guardians (carers), children under family care (carers), children under the care of guardians on duty, guardians on duty, family members, guardians (carers), adoptive parents and their family members living together or persons intending to become them, the necessary counseling, psychosocial, legal and other assistance would be available and provided, in order to properly educate and raise the child, adopted child in a close family environment.

CARE CENTER:

1. organizes and/or conducts the search for on-call guardians, guardians (carers), adoptive parents;

2. organizes and/or conducts the search for guardians (caregivers), adoptive parents for children living in children’s foster homes and community foster homes located in the municipal territory of the foster care center;

3. advises persons wishing to foster (take care of) children, adopt or become on-call guardians, persons seeking to establish families and/or become members of the family;

4. conducts trainings for on-duty guardians, guardians (carers), adoptive parents, family members to care for, look after, raise, adopt children and community children’s care home employees to work in these institutions in accordance with the GIMK program;

5. provides information and counseling services to on-call guardians, guardians (caregivers), adoptive parents, family members and individuals who wish to become such, prepares training and preparation for a child who has lost parental care for guardianship, maintenance or adoption evaluation, organizes mutual help groups;

6. informs in writing the municipal administration and the territorial department authorized by VVTAĮT about the conclusion and termination of cooperation and service provision contracts with on-call guardians (inform about the conclusion of the contract, indicate the person’s name, contact details (telephone number or e-mail address), how many and what kind children (age, gender, special needs) guardian on duty can supervise whether the guardian on duty accepts children at any time of the day, the date of conclusion of the contract; the termination of the contract is informed, the name and surname of the person and the date of termination of the contract are indicated). No later than within 5 working days from the date of receiving or changing the relevant data, submit data to the municipal administration or an institution authorized by it in writing about the guardian on duty with whom the cooperation and service provision agreement has been concluded (the person’s name and surname, address of the actual place of residence, contact details are indicated when informing (telephone number or e-mail address), how many and what children (age, gender, special needs) the guardian on duty can look after, whether the guardian on duty accepts children at any time of the day), about natural and legal persons who can accept a child in the municipality of its operation at any time of the day (name of a legal entity or name and surname of a natural person) and data on the guardian on duty with whom the cooperation and service provision contract was terminated due to improper execution of the contract (name and surname of the natural person and date of termination of the contract);

7. participates in the reviews of the child’s temporary custody (care), in accordance with the provisions of the Child’s temporary custody (care), and in the hearings of the case, in accordance with the description of the case management procedure, approved by the Minister of Social Security and Labor of the Republic of Lithuania in 2018. March 29 by order no. A1-141 “On Approval of Case Management Procedure Description” (hereinafter – Case Management Procedure Description). participates in reviews of the child’s permanent guardianship (care) at the request of the authorized territorial department of VVTAĮT;

8. coordinates the provision of assistance to children under the care of guardians on duty, guardians on duty and their family members living together and/or provides or organizes the necessary assistance (social, psychosocial, counseling, legal, etc.) for these children and guardians on duty and their family members living together. );

9. coordinates the provision of assistance to children under the care of guardians (carers), families, guardians (carers), family members and their family members living together and/or provides, organizes these children, guardians (carers), family members and together psychosocial, counseling or other necessary help for living members of their family. These services can be provided to adoptive parents and their family members living together, who have submitted a request for continued services;

10. provides intensive assistance to guardians on duty, guardians (caregivers), family members. Support for employees of community children’s care homes (methodological support according to the GIMK program and discussion of cases) is provided at the request of the administration of community children’s care homes, for adoptive parents – after receiving their request for the provision of coordinated / uncoordinated services or a preliminary request for the provision of continued services after adoption;

11. organizes and/or provides temporary respite services for guardians on duty, guardians (carers) and, if possible, family members;

12. implements the rights and duties of the legal representative of a child under the care of a guardian on duty. The care center can authorize the guardian on duty to perform specific actions representing the child in health care, social services, education or other institutions, institutions and organizations;

13. pays the on-duty guardian funds for child support and remuneration for child care every month (hereinafter – the on-duty guardian’s remuneration);

14. evaluates the quality of child care activities performed by the guardian on duty. The evaluation of the quality of the activities carried out by the same person and the readiness to perform the activities of the guardian on duty and to look after the children must be carried out by separate persons. If the care center does not have the ability to ensure that the quality of the child care activities performed by the guardian on duty and the assessment of the person’s readiness to carry out the activities of the guardian on duty and to look after children are carried out by separate persons, the care center ensures this according to the cooperation or service provision agreement with another care center;

15. ensuring the best interests of the child, cooperates with the municipal administration (coordinator of inter-institutional cooperation and other specialists), VVTAĮT and its authorized territorial department, other social services, education, health care institutions, law enforcement institutions, non-governmental organizations, social workers working with families, case managers;

16. when assessing support needs and planning support, providing and/or organizing coordinated support for a child, on-call guardian, guardian (carer), family members, adoptive parents and their family members living together, must collect all the necessary information to provide coordinated support (including personal data ) and copies of the necessary documents:

17. the care center must cooperate with the territorial department of VVTAĮT and, upon VVTAĮT submitting a written request (specifying the child’s name, surname, date of birth), provide it with copies of documents held by the care center and information (including personal data) about the child under care (in care) related to actions taken by the municipal administration and/or care center, organizing and providing assistance to the child and the on-call guardian, guardian (carer), family participants, adoptive parents and their family members living together;

18. if the guardian (caregiver) moves to live together with the child under guardianship (care) to another municipality, the care center must immediately inform the territorial department of VVTAĮT operating in its territory and the municipal administration and notify the guardian (caregiver) and the child under his care (care) of the services termination (indicate the name, surname, date of birth of the child under care (looked after) and the guardian (caregiver), date of moving to another municipality, date of termination of services, if known, ‒ address of new actual place of residence). If the new actual place of residence of the fostered (looked after) child and the guardian (caregiver) is known to the foster care center, the foster care center must inform the municipal administration of this place of residence and the territorial department of the VVTAĮT operating in that territory (indicate the fostered (looked after) child and the guardian ( caregiver’s) name, surname, date of birth, date of moving to another municipality, date of termination of services, address of new actual place of residence). In such a case, the care center, in order to ensure uninterrupted provision of services and transfer of important information, within 10 working days from the day of informing the territorial department of VVTAĮT and the municipal administration in this subsection, must transfer to another care center operating in the territory of the municipality to which the guardian (caregiver) has moved, his copies of the guardian’s (caregiver’s) file documents and a written summary of the most important information about the period of service provision (services provided and provided, important notes related to the guardian’s (caregiver’s) child, suggestions and recommendations to another service provider). When transferring a case, the care center must draw up a description of the case, which includes a list of copies of the documents in the case, and draw up an act of transfer-acceptance of the case. When transferring the file and preparing the report, the Document Management and Accounting Rules, approved by the Chief Archivist of Lithuania in 2011, are followed. July 4 by order no. V-118 “On Approval of Document Handling and Accounting Rules”;

19. as needed, cooperates with the parents, close relatives of the supervised, fostered (cared for) child (if this does not conflict with the child’s interests) and with physical persons with emotional ties to the child, prepares the supervised, fostered (cared for) child, if there is a need, and on duty guardian, guardian (carer) for meetings with them, participates in returning the child to the child’s parents or other representatives according to the law. The care center provides conditions for the child’s parents or other legal representatives, close relatives and natural persons with emotional ties to the child, and the child to meet at the care center or another agreed place, if this does not conflict with the child’s interests, and if necessary, after the meetings, provides assistance to the person under supervision, care ( cared for) child, guardian on duty and guardian (caregiver);

20. cooperates with guardians (caregivers), on-call guardians, family members and adoptive parents regarding meetings of separated sibling groups and ensures conditions for separated sibling groups to communicate and maintain relationships with each other, taking into account the best interests of children to grow and develop in the family and their right to maintain relations between brothers (sisters) in cases where the group of brothers (sisters) is broken up and custody (care) of different guardians (carers) is determined;

21. shares good practices with other social service institutions, families, staff of community children’s care homes, staff of children’s care homes (data by which a specific person could be identified, ‒ first name, last name, date of birth or personal identification number; the organization where the person works , municipality of residence or other data that can identify a natural person are not disclosed);

22. collects and analyzes data on guardians on duty, guardians (caregivers), adoptive parents specified by children who have been placed under guardianship (care), guardians (caregivers), persons ready to foster (care for) a child, and guardians (caregivers) of a child removed from description of the responsibilities of a child’s guardian (caregiver), centralized accounting procedure, approved by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania in 2018 May 2 by resolution no. 440 “On the granting of powers in the implementation of Article 3.276-1 of the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania and guardians (caregivers) of children for whom guardianship (care) has been established, persons ready to foster (care for) a child, and guardians (caregivers) of a child removed from the guardianship of the child ( caregiver’s) responsibilities, approval of the description of the centralized accounting procedure”, point 4, in the Social Family Support Information System (hereinafter – SPIS) and, if necessary, provides this information to VVTAĮT;

23. organizes professional competence improvement courses for care center specialists;

24. assesses the need for training on relevant topics and organizes them at the request of on-duty guardians, guardians (carers);

25. organizes care services for children at the request of on-duty custodians, guardians (carers);

26. publicizes the activities of the care center through various means of communication, educates the public about child care (care), adoption, activities of a guardian on duty, promotes positive public attitudes and a positive attitude towards children who have lost parental care, informs about adoption, foster care (care) in a family, on-call the custodian’s activity opportunities (personal data must be used in accordance with the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and legal acts regulating public publication of information);

27. publicly publishes information about the planned trainings according to the GIMK program (dates of the training, the entity conducting the training (name of the legal entity, the content of the training is indicated, i.e. according to which part of the GIMK program the training will take place, location, time and duration of the training, contact details (telephone number , e-mail address) to inquire);

28. carries out other functions related to assistance to children, guardians on duty, guardians (carers), members of families, adoptive parents and their family members living together.