Individualised out-of-home care 

According to the Child and Youth Welfare Act every minor is considered a person in a specific individual situation. Our individualised approach plans, organises and provides assistance specific to each case. Our services are provided for those minors who cannot be reached with conventional services, standard out-of-home care, special programs of assistance ¬– or those who are in need of intense support, by way of real relationships.

Minors in difficult situations are assisted by professionals pursuing a special approach to the specific situation, experience and resources of the clients. We provide residential settings in trustful private environments and close personal relationships in Germany and abroad. Support is flexible and differentiated, meeting the individual requirements of the psychosocial biographies of the young people.

Accounting for the reasons for such measures, and the history of assistance shows how the problems of minors require specialised concepts of assistance. Everyday life is reasonably structured to ensure individual and situational control, enhancing opportunities for crisis intervention.

Individualised out-of-home care settings provide continuous paths of support where youth are integrated into the household of a person, or families helping over a longer or shorter period of time. These family homes become the centre of the service, the project site.

These projects are individually adjusted to the needs of minors who are not eligible for conventional services or intensive assistance. Everyday life at the project site is the central learning environment and field of experience. At the project site, young people are given the opportunity for a fresh start, using the respective distance from their family systems or vulnerable sub-cultures, constructively.

Minors are firmly integrated into the household of the persons providing assistance and they take part in everyday life. By making contributions a young person experiences recognition and self-efficacy.

Co-habitation is used for children and youth who are no longer able to live in their family of origin, needing close personal assistance in a professional setting similar to a family. Such a setting is characterised by special professionalism and provides a specific supportive relationship. There are various family constellations in residential living communities and numerous alternative ways of building trustful relationships as the core basis for lasting and sustainable services.

The different stages of life of minors are characterised by numerous transitions and development processes involving permanently changing needs. Experience shows that these processes are not straightforward, and support within a project must account for changing individual needs and be flexible in responding to different situations. Youth are offered an exclusive and special supportive relationship involving intensified assistance and proximity to the professionals providing assistance.

Depending on the individual periods of placement, needs and prerequisites, different ratios of assistance are applied. In the case of individualised projects this is done on a 1:1 ratio. If needed from the professional point of view measures may be adjusted individually. This means settings limited in time are designed to meet individual requirements. Above all, a real relationship with the clients must be established in order to exert significant influence.

Based on this it is clarified and decided in the medium term to see whether a placement limited / unlimited in time makes sense. Measures can be designed in an out-of-home or ambulatory setting (travel project and residential youth therapy project). High levels of transparency and variability are our standards.

Out-of-home care projects abroad are individualised ways of assistance that can be used to ensure a great distance from a harmful living environment or a high-risk milieu. Experience gained in another cultural setting, the special geographic, social and natural conditions of the respective host country and the high level of inter-dependence between the person providing assistance and the person receiving assistance in a foreign-language environment are used.

These project conditions provide specific learning conditions and a field of experience for minors who couldn’t be assisted in the social environment in their country of origin. Certain changes intended in assistance planning can only be implemented successfully this way. Projects abroad are, therefore, a special way of having access to youths who due their experience and mistrust towards “adults” can’t be accessed by other youth services.

WIR Kinder- und Jugendhilfe gGmbH can help you identify the indicators for a project abroad and provide assistance in the host country approval process.

Our travel projects help youths find a way out of acute difficult situations.

Travel projects are intensive individualised services using the specific experience gained in an unfamiliar, new environment, the special geographic, social and natural conditions of the respective host region and the high level of inter-dependence between the person providing assistance and the person receiving assistance in a foreign environment. Furthermore, special learning opportunities and fields of experience that don’t exist in their social environment are provided.
Building up an intensive relationship of trust complemented by changing impulses is the key element of these projects. The person providing assistance designs a setting taking the minors individual situation into account, with the client being part of defined structures based on intensive support.

Travel projects can be used as a clearing to identify needs and envisage future perspectives. They are used as time outs if a temporary distance from the previous living environment or high-risk milieu is required. A travel project may be anterior to an ambulatory youth service.

Individualised Out-Of-Home Care Assisted Living Ambulatory Assistance Professional Guidelines