Updates from FICE Austria
(Homepage: www.fice.at; Email: office@fice.at)

Update from the Board:

Since 2020 the Board is in an ongoing strategic planning process led by its presidents Christian Posch and Bettina Terp. This process is expected to be finalized by the end of 2021. The Board has one new member: Ms. Raluca Verweijen Slamnescu and is now composed of nine board members. Currently, FICE Austria has increased its membership number to 23 member associations based in Austria and has additionally several individual (private) members.

Update about the projects of FICE Austria 

The following newsletter article informs about the implementation status of the two key FICE Austria projects. Both projects are in their implementation phase and are expected to be finished in spring 2022.

Both projects respond directly to gaps identified by the Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child from the UN Commission in Geneva (2020) for Austria and are co-funded by the Fonds Gesundes Österreich.

The book “Qualitätsstandards für die stationäre Kinder- und Jugendhilfe'' was translated into English. The book with the title “Quality standards for professional alternative child and youth care in group homes'' is available as e-book (USD 9,98) and soft-book (USD 25,00) on Amazon.

Book recensions and recommendations (star rating) on Amazon will help to make the book more visible in online searched. Thank-you.

Book purchases within Europe can be also done directly from FICE Austria for Euro 19,90 + VAT + porto per email: bestellung@fice.at 

Update Project 1: Training on Quality Standards for alternative care settings for children and youth.

A project group under the project lead of Dr. Monika Lengauer and Dr. Christian Posch is working intensively on the development of a curriculum for the “Quality Standards for professional alternative child and youth care in group homes”. In total, 32 organizations and training institutes (private and public) are involved in this project. The aim of this project is to develop a standardized training curriculum for care professionals that will support the long-run implementation of the quality standards in the professional alternative care sector in Austria. The project results are expected to be available in mid-2022 and this curriculum will help to close a “training” gap in the Austrian child and youth care sector.

Update Project 2: Quality Standards for family support and strengthening programmes in Austria.

The second project under the project lead of Bettina Terp was launched in February 2021. The project aims to develop quality standards for family support and strengthening programs in Austria in a participatory process with the participation of many stakeholders and organizations working in this sector. The project results (quality standards) will be published in a handbook after the project is finalized in 2022.

Both projects are co-funded by the Fonds Gesundes Österreich (FGÖ).