Praga Południe, Praga Północ and Targówek

One in five children have no bed of their own, no place to do homework.

Children and young people who receive the Foundation’s assistance on a daily basis come from poor, dysfunctional: alcoholic and violent families or families at risk of these phenomena. As a result of the study, the Warsaw authorities considered the children’s places of residence, namely Praga Południe next to Praga Północ and Targówek, as a crisis area with regard to the risk of social exclusion of children and young people. The long-standing deactivation and poverty of residents of specific subareas in the districts accumulates a number of problems, further fostering alcoholism, falling into other addictions or crime.

A sense of insecurity and an increase in social pathologies prevents social integration and results in the formation of peculiar cultures of poverty, along with the tendency to inherit such lifestyles.

This exposure to social exclusion is due to the inadequate social and financial conditions of children and young people living in this vulnerable area of Warsaw ( one in five children do not have their own bed, no place to do homework), difficult access to education, participation in culture and access to the Internet, as well as due to the low cultural capital of the original neighborhood.

The Association of the Union of Prague Municipalities, having diagnosed the resources of South Prague, points to the need for more work to change the life situation of people, who find themselves on the margins of social life. They propose to change the approach and place emphasis on individual work with the family in question, based on the solutions proposed in the amendment to the Law on Social Assistance. The priority is to change the cultural pattern of families under the care of social assistance through the creation of a broad educational training system, through active vocational counseling, creation of new jobs, in-depth psychological assistance, creation of support groups, etc.

Equalizing opportunities children and youth from families with low economic and cultural status is an opportunity to make a real difference in their lives.

ZGP Association indicates the need to equalize opportunities for children and young people from families with low economic and cultural status by building and path of child development and creating an offer of free extracurricular activities, supporting NGOs. The Integrated Revitalization Program of the City of Warsaw until 2022 indicates that the crisis area in the Praga Południe District is located in the western part of the district. This area includes the Kamionek and Grochów neighborhoods, which include partially industrial areas and workers’ settlements. The aforementioned neighborhoods are located in the vicinity of the foundation’s headquarters, and the recipients of our programs reside in these areas. Children and young people who regularly benefit from the support of the Foundation’s activities are identified as a social group particularly at risk of pathology and social dysfunction.

Purpose of the activities of the Caring Wings Foundation

The purpose of the foundation is educational, cultural and educational activities for children and young people from the poorest areas of Warsaw and support for families in need.

This is the main goal of the Foundation’s activities, which accompanies the daily intensive work of a qualified team of educators_women, administrative staff_women, volunteers_women, ambassadors_women and many friends of the Foundation. Equalizing social and educational opportunities for children and young people through the development of passions and interests, and equipping them with concrete, practical skills that will translate into further choice of educational path and professional development, is extremely important in our activities.

Dysfunctional families

According to our many years of observation and experience, currently the most serious problems of parents and caregivers are: lack or low level of parenting skills, unemployment, passive, demanding attitude, low level of professional competence, low life and career aspirations, alcoholism, violence. The children’s parents and caregivers transfer to their own families the mechanisms and behavioral styles that they themselves brought from their original environment. The dysfunction that prevails in the families to be targeted is multigenerational.

The main problems of the children and adolescents in the charge are:

• Lack of positive support from parents and guardians,
• educational backlog,
• low level of social skills,
• low self-esteem,
• A low level of life and career aspirations combined with a low awareness of the possibility of choosing one’s own life path,
• aggression.

Why is this happening?

Children do not receive positive behavioral role models, while through constant interaction with their parents they adopt the lifestyle of their caregivers without being aware of a different life. Given the social neglect, the lack of potential in the family for the proper psycho-social development of children and adolescents, and the multi-generational dysfunction of the family, the only condition for real, viable help for children is a long-term, consistent educational process that takes into account the needs of children and their family situation.

Your help = our help

As a result of our work with children and adolescents, we can clearly observe the clear changes that are taking place within the psycho-social functioning of our wards children and also members of their families. The consequence of discontinuing and not continuing the educational path we started will be a regression in social skills, a return to peer groups from the immediate environment, whose functioning is based on aggression and violence, alcohol and drug use. Children and adolescents will be deprived of educational, educational, emotional support. Consequently, in the future they will continue the life path of their parents and guardians. From a social perspective, this means growing up socially maladjusted people with very low professional competence, passive or low professional activity, lack of life aspirations, a demanding attitude, criminal behavior, alcoholism.