15.04.2015. – 30.06.2015.

UNION „FAMILY SUPPORT CENTRE „PUĶUZIRNIS”PRESENTS A VARIETY OF MANY DIFFERENT ACTIVITIES

For little less than three months union „Family support centre “Puķuzirnis”” implementsproject2014.EEZ/PP/1/MIC/074/040„Complex support events to decrease social exclusion of youth and families with children”. During this time a group of parents have begun to attend a training course „Child’s emotional upbringing (CEU)”, which is a novelty in the town of Preiļi as it is necessary to have a trained specialist in order to manage such a group – a member of union will study this in establishment „Centrs Dardedze”. CEU program is meant for parents, who have children between ages of 0 and 7. Even thoughthe objective of program is to teach parents how to better understand their child, often the parents at first start to understandbetter themselves and as a result they find it easier to deal with their children upbringing. Also parents are offered speech therapist and fiziotherapist classes in series „Be conversant and help your child to grow healthy!”. There already have been a class about the role of nutrition in context of fiziotherapy – the aim of the class was to give different view about food, to teach not to count calories, but to understand how food affects one’s body, stance, movements; in addition fiziotherapist provided information about how to take care of daily pains via changing ones nutrition and daily regime. There has been a practice based class for parents on how to decrease muscle tension, whose aim was to show practical exercises for your back and joints suitable for home environment and also class for parents with babies about child’s movement development in the first year in context of fiziotherapy (rolling, crawling, raising onto feet, walking), in which key principles of child’s motor development were explained. Furthermore there have been classes about handling– method which teaches how to correctly hold and engage in activities with baby and also about Emmi Pikler’s method or in other words free movement and uninterrupted play method.Valuable information was also given in speech therapist classes – answers were sought on question about why my child does not talk as clearly as his/herspeer, additionally various pantomime exercises were shown practically, which can be repeated by parents together with their children, furthermore not only are they helpful for child’s speech development but also very entertaining due to funny facial expressions made during the exercises. Articulation apparatus and fine motor skills exercise classes turned to be very enjoying, thanks to diverse toy inventory, –all you are left to do is to review toy shelves in your home and you certainly will find something that could help your child in language development. At the end of June first paediatrician class took place in which Dr. Liene Smane, who has performed with reports about topic of paediatrics in many scientific conventions in USA, China, Italy, Hungary etc.,introduced parents with the most common child illnesses and gave advice about what can be done by parents at home in order to avoid the need for child to be hospitalised as much as possible.

Children were offered to participate in creative pottery and weaving workshops – they were chosen with aims to improve children visual imagination, patience, willpower, thinking abilities, communication and social skills as well as to promote their creativity and stimulate fine motor skills.In pottery workshops children created medals, flowers for mums, snails, spiders, bowls, various geometric shapes and works of their own choice. In weaving workshops children created scarfs, little blankets and decorative interior elements. Weaving workshops for teenagers began on the 19th of June, while the pottery workshop will be available in autumn. We have also begun classes for personality development with canis-therapy elements, as dogs positively influence child’s psycho-emotional state, build up confidence, promote motivation as well as decrease anxiety that occurs dealing with unfamiliarity.This is the reason why such classes are offered as a part of the project, furthermore these classes will continue all through the summer – on June classes took place in Aizkalne, the next set of classes will take place on July in Preiļi and on August they will take place in Riebiņi. At the end of July children aged 5-10 will have a chance to participate in day camp ,,Little explorers’’  which is aimed for environmental exploration, andlearning to preserve nature and take care of it.

Teenagers have participated in art therapy classes and support group, as well as series of classes ,,I in the world, the world in ME’’, which is aimed for self-understanding and successful decision making about future occupations. Classes are made in away that providesrelaxed and comfortable atmosphere in which teenagers can think, participate in discussions, express their own opinions and search for answers of their own about their decisions in terms of future occupation. Leaders try to help teenagers to discover their unique skills and character traits, personal strengths. Also teenagers learn to express their own opinion, provide supporting arguments, present themselves and create cohesive team with the rest of the participants. At the end of July teenagers will have an opportunity to master computer design program CorelDraw, about which many have shown a great interest.

Final eligible costs of the project are 22 222,21 EUR, maximum extent of the program co-financing is 19 999,99 EUR or 90% of the final eligible costs of which 95% are provided by European Economic Area financial instrument and 5% from the state budget of Latvia. Union’s funding is 10%of the final eligible costs or 2222,22 EUR, which is made up off Preiļi and Riebiņi regional council funding as well asunion members voluntary work.

For more information we encourage you to follow the websitewww.pukuzirnis.lv.

Anita Gāga

Union ,,Family support centre ,,Puķuzirnis’’’’ Member of the Board

 Project is financially supported by Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway. This press release has been created with European Economic Area financial instrument and Latvia state funding. Responsibility of the press release content is taken by ,,Family support centre ,,Puķuzirnis’’ ’’.