Veessen

There are interesting things going on in a farm buried deep in the Dutch countryside near the River IJssel, things which have an impact on many other countries, ideas for the future and a beacon of hope for many people. Ask a Dutch person where Veessen is, and they won’t know, but it is where the Federal Council of FICE (Federation Internationale des Communautes Educatives) met in May, and it proved an inspiring choice.

Zwolle

The farm, called De Nijensteen, is at Veessen, near Zwolle in the north east of the country. The farm is set in the IJssel’s flood plain, but it is protected by a large bank along which the road to the farm runs. It is newly built, and must qualify as the cleanest farm in the world. It has acres of pear trees, and arable land for the cows and crops, and has been designed as a model farm to reflect the ideas and values of the Trust which runs it, using heat from 80 metres down in the ground and insulated by neatly thatched roofs. The cow byres have nice big windows, so that the cows can keep an eye on visitors, and there are extensive training facilities, including residential accommodation for participants.

The Trust which runs the farm is headed by Theo Tobe and has a very wide range of innovative projects in 135 countries. In that it helps disadvantaged communities and individuals, it is charitable, but one of its fundamental aims is to avoid giving charitable support which may render the recipient dependent. Instead it sees the finance and expertise it offers as an investment which will help the recipients become independent by achieving sustainable incomes.

Instead of handouts of food, therefore, it works with local communities to dig wells. The “working with” is important if people are to value the help they are offered and to make full use of it. In the well-digging project, the local men involved were not too keen on working, but the women wanted access to water supplies, and so, in the manner of Lysistrata, they went on a sex strike until the men got down to the digging again. It soon worked, and the venture drew the community together, giving them a sense of achievement.

Meeting of FICE and AEIJI

Another project, on which we reported some months ago, was the creation of a hairdressing salon for care-leavers in Bulgaria, enabling them to learn a useful trade, develop working habits and get some income during the difficult transition period to independent living. The first young people to go on this scheme are now trained and have moved on to other jobs.

The latest project has been to set up the “broody hen” scheme – where the Foundation acts as an intermediary to bring people together so that projects can be initiated and become self-sufficient. Very often, people with good ideas have no finance, but there is finance to be had, and so success depends upon bringing the parties together. Making the idea hatch and come alive is the role of the broody hen.

The example shown was that of a Dutch doctor who had devised cheap adjustable spectacles, which can be mass-produced and then adapted to individuals’ sight problems. In this way, it is estimated that hundreds of millions of people throughout the world who cannot afford conventional spectacles will be able to increase their earning power dramatically at a very modest cost.

The values of this organisation provided a creative and optimistic back-drop for FICE’s work. FICE’s Federal Council meets twice a year, each time in a different country, and these events are a mixture of business meeting, professional visits, day conferences and socialising.

Foyers

Foyers for young people are a relatively new phenomenon in the Netherlands, and they were the focus of a day conference held in Dordrecht, not far from Rotterdam.

The idea for foyers came from France, where they have existed for several decades, and although there are about a dozen in London, the idea has not generally caught on in other countries. It is not clear why this is the case, as foyers fulfil an important need.

Dr Marc Noon of Leiden University suggested that the foyer movement reflected a new approach to work with children and young people, and contrasted the present with the past. Previously, professionals had focused on the children’s problems rather than their competencies, on single issues rather than the whole child, on the child rather than his/her social and family networks, and on the child’s behaviour rather than his/her thoughts and feelings. Similarly organisations had often had a single focus, and they now were working together to make services more joined up and child-focused. Youth Care Bureaux had been set up throughout the Netherlands to co-ordinate services in each locality.

Rob Hagens described foyers as “rooms with opportunities”. Foyers provide accommodation and support for young people in late teenage and early adulthood during the difficult transition from home life in their birth families to independent living. A proportion of foyer tenants will have had problems at home and need to set up on their own at a stage when most young people are still supported by their families. They need help not only with accommodation but also in life skills training, obtaining employment, and the constructive use of leisure time. (More information is available on www.foyer.net).

Foyers come in an increasingly varied range of formats. The original foyers were large institutions sited in one building, offering bedsits. Now, they come in varying sizes and in looser formats, such as groups of flats within a housing estate, scattering the provision among other tenants but remaining within a radius suited to easy oversight by support workers.

The day conference was held in one foyer which was in the form of a large block of flats, which had previously been a 192-bedded old people’s home. It had a lot of facilities, including a shop and the large hall and restaurant where the conference was held. There was psychiatric support and links with a nearby college to provide vocational training.

A visit was also made to a nearby foyer on the scattered model, which included flats for one or two tenants and a larger unit with six bedsits. The facilities generally seemed to be good, apparently with the strange exception of the lack of a bathroom. (Were they meant to wash in the kitchen?)

Services of this sort tend to be sited in areas of social housing, and understandably there are often social problems in these areas, such as drug abuse. Some of the young adults who acted as hosts were single mothers, and the area had a high proportion of immigrants, most being from Holland’s former colonies such as the Antilles.

Another model Tender Labour, (not visited) offered short-term help, virtually as a last resort for young offenders, including assessment and a variety of support to enable those sent there to get back into education or obtain employment. Not all made it to the end of the programme, but for those that did, it offered the chance for intensive support and avoidance of further offending : 65% of the young people completing this scheme obtained work or attended college.

The day ended with a boat trip to Rotterdam and a superb meal in a canal-side restaurant staffed by young adults who had been homeless but who now had the opportunity of learning the catering trade as well as having a roof over the heads at the centre, named Maaszicht. Although the young people are still on benefits (rather than being paid a wage), the job offers them an opportunity to experience work and to learn catering skills from the professional staff running the restaurant. A Dutch Jamie Oliver.

Business

There were fifty delegates at the Federal Council meeting from over twenty countries, and there was a long agenda, which was dealt with expeditiously by Theo Binnendijk, the President, who was entering his third and last two-year period of office.

Anton Tobe speaking at the Welcome Reception

New National Sections are being planned in the USA and England, and Dennis Felty of the Keystone Foundation and Sally Bamsey of the National Children’s Bureau gave short presentations about their respective organisations. Contact had also been made with child care workers in Haiti.

There was discussion about co-operation with other international professional associations. A useful meeting had been held a couple of days earlier with Arlin Ness, the President of AIEJI ( the International Association of Social Educators), and Lars Steinov, the General Secretary. A dozen areas of possible collaboration had been identified, such as membership of ENQASP, and it was agreed that the Federal Council meeting to be held in Vienna in May 2006 should be at the same site and time as AIEJI’s Board, so that the two groups could meet.

Monika Niederle reported on the project on Quality 4 Children, which is proceeding apace, with representatives from countries throughout Europe and a programme of consultation and drafting ahead. Rather than assess inputs, Monika argued, quality in care depends upon the attitudes of the workers, and they were hoping to draft standards which would encourage the right values to permeate the work. They intended to involve children and young people in the project, and to reflect the right approach in the work of the project itself.

Federal Council

Plans are in hand for the Sarajevo Congress in September 2006. To provide continuity, Jennifer Davidson, the Chief Executive of SIRCC (Scottish Institute of Residential Child Care), gave a frank appraisal of the success of the last Congress held in September 2004 in Glasgow. Following the Glasgow example, it is intended to hold a Children’s Congress in Sarajevo for fifty participants – ten countries each sending five children and their carers – but, while in Glasgow the two Congresses were kept separate until a presentation by the young people to the adult Congress on the last day, in Sarajevo it is intended to blend the two. Delegates with experience of organising the Glasgow event urged the Sarajevo team to ensure adequate numbers of carers.

UK Delegates

Roland Stuebi introduced the Sarajevo Declaration – a draft statement which ultimately will be presented to the Congress for approval. In the meantime, it is subject to debate and redrafting. (If interested in contributing, click here to see the draft presented at Veessen.)

Slovak Delegates

Bulgarian Delegates

Bulls

On the last day, the Federal Council visited the Glen Mills School, which is based on an American model for young offenders. It was a fascinating visit, not least because of people’s varying responses to the model. Some were impressed by its success; others felt uneasy or sceptical.

The Director was frank about the reactions which the School elicits. They have 3,500 visitors a year, and like their work to be open to scrutiny. Indeed, openness and transparency was a key feature of the Director’s address and of the hospitality shown by the young men who acted as guides.

The Glen Mills model is based on confrontation. When a boy arrives, he has often come from a gang culture and he is stripped of any links with that past such as clothing and jewelry. He wears Glen Mills clothing and is expected to conform with standards of behaviour from the start. Initially he has to sit on the floor and learn by heart the key principles of life in the School. These include showing and earning respect, not hurting anyone, being proud of the School, learning how to handle both winning and losing, and accepting confrontation.

After this initial period he becomes an aspirant, learning the way of life considered acceptable in the School, and each week his behaviour is assessed. Each boy is then labelled positive, neutral or negative. Any negative behaviour is identified, and the boy is confronted, shouted at if necessary, by both staff and other students. Loyalty to the School and House is considered very important and breaches of behaviour are seen as letting their unit down. No one has ever been expelled, and the most severe punishments are being demoted from being a Bull, which is very rare, and being made to sit on the floor.

After six positive weeks, a student can be considered eligible to become a Bull. There is a ceremony when boys become Bulls, to which their families and ex-students are invited. It is seen as a key turning point. The Bulls have their own club and a lot of privileges such as home visits. They also have extra responsibilities for identifying negative behaviour, escorting aspirants around the site and acting as a sort of prefect.

The daily round includes group meetings (“Guided Group Interaction”) where students speak about their conduct within a structured setting, training in workshops and classroom teaching. The workshops and classrooms are well equipped and one of the School’s norms is that time spent there is considered “sacred” as it is the students’ opportunity to better themselves. There is a huge gym, which is used every day by every boy. What if they don’t like sport? “They will be helped to like it”, the guide explained.

There are no rules, but “norms” which are agreed by the Bulls, subject to veto by the Director. Everyone, including the Director, is bound by these norms, which are changed to match the changing needs of the community. The students also play an important role in selecting staff.

Becoming a Bull can take between three and eighteen months, the whole programme of training and education lasting about two years. There is also aftercare for six months and follow-up for two years.

People’s unease about the Glen Mills model is based on concern about the boot camp approach it adopts, with confrontation being seen as oppressive and possibly conducive to bullying by staff. The School does not deny that it is trying to make a firm impression on the boys. Indeed, it sees its community as a sort of gang, replacing the boys’ earlier gang life with a positive model. One of the outcomes is that some boys abscond, unable to take the pressure in an open setting, but the Director insisted that boys were treated with respect, and the pressure was exerted in their best interests.

On the other hand, the guides who showed the FICE party round impressed as self-assured young men, courteous, good-humoured, self-confident, fluent in Dutch, English and other languages, and well placed to move on to college or employment. That has to be seen as success. Bearing in mind the importance of congruence (identified by James Anglin in his research as a key factor in the success of residential child care), Glen Mills School demonstrated congruence in spades. They were explicit about their methods and their practice reflected their stated aims and methods. The outcome is students who have experienced achievement during their schooling, occupational training and leisure life at the School. Recidivism among former students was down to 10%, which must be classed a success.

Part of Glen Mills’s success can probably be put down to selection methods. They take offenders, except for sex offenders, but do not accept young people with mental health problems, autism or learning disabilities. Their clientele is therefore probably suited to their methods, and their methods may well not be suited to the young people they reject. Glen Mills experimented with a unit for girls in Seattle, but it did not succeed. For those students who are selected and who make it to becoming a Bull, their life chances must be enhanced. On balance, it seems that Glen Mills does not provide a panacea for all young people, but, for those whom its suits, it can provide a really positive experience.

Conclusion

All in all, a positive event. One of the values of participating in FICE events is that one sees parts of countries which are not on the tourist trail. This time, delegates shared an informative day conference, visited a school with challenging methods and learnt of the positive values of the host Foundation, as well as doing the business needed to keep FICE going. Thanks are due to Anton Tobe, Wim Kok, Ina Bos and all their colleagues for the hard work put in to making the event memorable.

FICE meets next in September in Romania.

Footnote Members in FICE-Denmark have holiday cottages, and would be happy to arrange a swap with FICE members in other countries. Why not benefit from being part of an international network?

CLICK HERE TO GO TO

FICE Congress : Sarajevo : September 2006
Theme: Shaping a positive future despite a difficult childhood

FICE Declaration of Sarajevo : Draft