Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile: Training for Sename begins in a project with the collaboration of UC Social Work
Faced with situations that involve multiple social actors, the union seems to be the best response: that is the motivation behind Nuevos Futuros , a pilot project for children’s homes, which this month begins its practice in La Araucanía, thanks to an alliance of public and private institutions . Through the advice given by Carolina Muñoz and UC Social Work academics , the goal is to design specialized training for those who work directly in the care of children and adolescents.
“For our university, it is a long-term commitment to contribute to the excellence of professionals who work with children and adolescents who need to restore rights that have not been guaranteed,” said Rector Ignacio Sánchez.
The first steps in this great challenge occurred in 2018, when a group of organizations met to develop a model that improves the quality of life of children and adolescents living in protection residences.
“It has been a long time job, we have spent years in this beautiful experience of learning to ally with private companies and civil society. What the technical table has done is very rigorous work. Part of our mission as a School of Social Work is to influence public policy, and Nuevos Futuro s is a result of that commitment, where through research and training we can contribute to social policies in Chile ” , says Carolina Muñoz, academic of Social Work and member of the board of Nuevos Futuros .
After a previous phase that brought together actors from the government, academia, companies and solidarity organizations, the UC School of Social Work has played a key role in creating content and methodologies for the initiative. During the design of the project, this alliance made a comprehensive diagnosis regarding the training of workers in these residences. Later, within the framework of an agreement between Chile Valora and Sename, the work profiles and training plans were designed for 3 key positions in the protection residences: director, psychosocial duo and educator of direct treatment. In addition, training itineraries were proposed, in order to standardize and ensure that the people who work in the residences have the necessary skills to work with children and their families.
National authorities from the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights , Banco Bci, Servicio Mejor Niñez, SENAME and the Residences Board of the Community of Solidarity Organizations attended for the official launch of the New Futures pilot .
“This is the fruit of three years’ work, in which we seek to strengthen the work that is done in the residences with children and adolescents, through an alliance of the public and private sectors, civil society and academia. The topic chosen was training, because we noticed that there was a deficit there, so we made diagnoses and generated a new way of working to face this gap ” , Hernán Larraín, Minister of Justice and Human Rights.
The pilot plan that is now being developed in La Araucanía was designed together with the Public Innovation Laboratory of the Catholic University , and consisted of developing a training course that includes theoretical and practical classes, and reflection and support sessions for 218 workers from 15 residences. of Sename collaborating organizations.
This first stage of implementation of New Futures will take place until October, and will be 100% remotely, while preventive measures are maintained due to the pandemic.