In Slovakia, most children with health disadvantages do not have support from early childhood, parents do not receive support, children have very low chances of getting into kindergarten. Consequently, there is a failure of the school system, where a cooperating analyst proves in her research that the number of children staying at home due to health disadvantage has increased by a third over the last seven years.
The project aims to build a long-term functioning rooftop parental organization for families of children with any health disadvantage and to employ directly the parents of these children. Based on the existing activities, the Platform has a chance to be a long-term competent intermediary in promoting a change in the system of current services and support for families of children with disabilities, the initiator of cooperation between NGOs and public administrations, a guide for families of children with disabilities. The Platform's activities to date have been carried out by volunteers, but due to the scale (more than 100 activities per year), this is not possible voluntarily and without background. Parents themselves are "forced" to be excluded from the society and they want to be involved in the working process and many of them are motivated to work on changes for the benefit of families in a similar situation. The target group of the project consist of children with health disadvantages and their families.
Slovak partner, CDKL5 lends space for activities of the Platform of Families of Children with Health Disabilities to organize meetings, parental discussions and workshops, rehabilitation of children and other activities. The role of the Icelandic partner, Rökstólar Samvinnumiðstöð, is to design and facilitate support and educational activities, to contribute to the systemic changes needed during the transformation of the Family Platform.