GLOSSARY
:
-
Emergency:
a serious,
dangerous, temporary, often
unexpected
situation
requiring immediate action.
-
Shelter:
a place giving
temporary
protection
from bad weather or danger,
which should immediately
respond to the fundamental human
right of refuge and protection
and refreshment, food and drink
WHY ATTENTION TO
SHELTERS:
With regard to homeless people,
there are two emergency services
that encounter the largest number of
homeless people:
· Welcoming
and going to the meeting :
are two
functions of the same take care of
person. The pandemic has undoubtedly
highlighted the critical aspects of
both, but at the same time it has
also provided an opportunity to
review and correct past inefficient
models, deinstitutionalizing in a
certain sense inadequate
institutions, and above all to
innovate by proposing not only
up-to-date structures but above all
prototypes more attentive to the
person, more attentive to respect
for privacy than to the economy of
the service, more attentive to
reintegration than to assistance.
Is it because of the pandemic
situation we know this? I think our
result of the project we have been
doing during the last years in SMES
already show us all the problems/
SHELTER - multivalent function
Three complementary
functions best express the overall
meaning we intend to encompass and
express with the word
SHELTER:
a) crossroads; b) observatory; c)
bridge
-
CROSSROADS
: the shelter as the
crossroads
of people
in a situation of
poverty and extreme poverty,
in need of
themost ‘basic
& emergency services’
:
day and/or night
– drop-in - shower & clothes
- canteen…
More than a place where the
poor people
converge to sleep and to eat
(satisfaction of
primary needs)
, the shelter has become more
and more the
social reference
space & refuge
of current social suffering.
-
OBSERVATORY
: the shelter – at same time -
could become also a privileged
observatory
of the causes and consequence of
this poverty. Listening
carefully to the said and
unseeded of the suffering of
these people, try to understand
the request of the person and
the multiple causes that have
reduced him in this condition.
-
BRIDGE
: the shelter insure too the
function of a potential
bridge
connecting these need situations
with those who work in social
and health services. Not only
take care of person welcomed,
but also to facilitate
connection and accessibility
with community based services .
/And a bridge to housing???/
QUESTIONS
:
1)
How these 3
functions are expression of
social mission and global
function of services ?
2)
What about
Innovation of Emergency
services ?
3)
How shelter
contribute to inclusion process,
adapted in personal way to all
divers people ?
SHELTER as GLOBAL EMERGENCY
SERVICES
1.
Primary
purpose:
the
shelter
is
a
service
to the person in
need, respecting their dignity,
their
rights,
his
will.
A service that is available, that welcomes, that listens, that
tries to respond to the
person,
heard in
his need.
2. Principle of reality:
shelters
in Europe,
as
emergency services for homeless
people
exists
and, if
no one really
believes in
the
recent slogan
"end of homelessness
by
2030",
we
will
also agree that
unfortunately or
fortunately shelters
should
still
be
there
(cf. Shelter and winter/cold
program)
But,
the
principle of reality leads us
to think
that
what
we cannot
cure
definitely, it
would
at
least do well to care at best until
necessary
...
And with all the
means at their disposal..
3. Institutionalization
of the service: over the years
and for several
reasons and in
most
cases,
the
shelters
have become
an
institution,
i.e.
the
public or
private body,
established to meet any specific
need of a
given
population.
But
in
this
way the
shelter
in
most cases
has become a place
where
settlement,
provisions, spaces ... impose their
own standards,
their
own principles, often
resulting
in
situations
of rejection with
negative
consequences
for all.
4. Deinstitutionalization:
is
the person first and
foremost possible?
First of all deinstitutionalization
means to listen and understanding
the person with respect for the
person.
SCOPES and INDICATORS:
-
accessibility
& hospitality
- relation
between outside (street) and inside
(shelter)
-
congruent services
in relation to
individual persons with specific
needs
-
quality & continuity care
in order to avoid the permanent
repetition of at the need to access
emergency care services.
RESULTS EXPECTED:
1.
Mutual
learning - Innovative
proposals and new perspectives
- shelters
de-institutionalization:
lightening of structures to guarantee particular attention to
the singularity of the person.
2.
Disseminate information about
‘efficient and innovative ‘
practices
3.
Advocacy and lobbying
COLLABORATION
:
in the end this is
the most interesting point:
how
the
various proposals and
projects for solutions to the
housing crisis
contribute
to
offer
congruent,
adequate and sustainable responses
to the demand
for dignity and
well-being of each person.
To promote together
training sessions, focus groups,
workshops and webinar, where –
together – will be
possible to evaluate situation by
divers points of view but with the
same objective : dignity and
well-being.
It is
not
competition
between institutions
- programs - projects and services
that will allow for more effective
responses, but only
complementary
collaboration for respect
of diversity for dignity/fundamental
rights
and
human
well-being.
Together also advocacy & lobbying
for insure the respect of
fundamental human wrights of each
people. |
