The Family and Community center Chaloupka

The family and community center Chaloupka in Ostrava was found 10 years ago by three mothers on maternity leave who didn’t want to sit at home, but wanted to go to the community of other mothers with their children, invented new activities to their children and wanted to never let their children be bored.

Family center is focused on work with families with children. Especially on strenghtening family values and intergenerational relations, strenghtening the role of parents, maternal and paternal roles in society, support legal protection of family, motherhood and the same opportunities for all, promotion of healthy life in a healthy environment, support the harmony between work and family life, support multicultural environment, development of social work and community, to participate in activities of public life for families in the Moravian region.

From the beginning the funding had been secured only by parents, but it wasn’t possible to keep it on their shoulders. That’s why they tried to ask  Ostrava city to help. The effort was successful and since this time the center has been working as a non-profit organization with sponsorship from town, city, region, Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, European Union or some other volunteers who want to help the target group.

The family and community center Chaloupka in Ostrava provides a lot of regular acitivities like social help in hard life situations, advice help, Montessori system of education, exercises for pregnant women, exercises for parents and their children, yoga, lenguage lessons, music and dance lessons, lessons of art, tutoring children to school and many others.  Then the family center provides non-regular activities like weekend stay for children or parents, trips, cultural, sports and educational events.

Our center is the helping organisation for foster families as well. We cooperate with about 60 foster families. Foster families have the duty to conclude The Agreement on the performance of foster care with either a chosen helping organisation or the authority of social and legal child protection. Our center provides activities for foster families like education, weekend stays for families, trips, cultural and sports events,  etc..