It is in a child’s best interests to remain with the family of origin as long as the family is providing adequate care. In partnership with community organizations and government, we work to strengthen vulnerable families in order to prevent family breakdown and separation of children from their families. In family strengthening, we also work with kinship care, where children are supported to live with their extended family. Where necessary we partner with the state and other stakeholders to provide access to basic healthcare and quality education to support children and families to become self-reliant. Humanitarian emergency situations invariably lead to family separation and loss of security and livelihood.

In such situations, we actively support family reunification, and we assist families to overcome trauma and rebuild their lives. For children who cannot be reunified with their family, we work with authorities to find a suitable care placement.

The main goals of Family Strengthening Programmes are to enable children at risk of losing parental care to grow up in a caring family environment and to support reintegration after the separation of children from their families of origin

Within the focus of SOS Family Strengthening Program (FSP) are those families socio-economic marginalised, characterised by high poverty level, domestic violence situations and children are at risk to live in long-term poverty due to low level of income made by parents, inadequate housing conditions, and poor access to basic services.

Working with children and families in the frame of Family Strengthening Programmes is seen as an individual support process, where a case management approach is followed in order to assess the family, plan, coordinate and deliver, monitor and review progress as well as advocate for a package of multiple services to meet the complex needs of children and their family.

Family Strengthening Programmes in Albania work in three pillars by providing a package of services:

• Access of children to essential services;
• Support families to build their capacity to protect and care for their children;
• Strengthen support systems for vulnerable children and their families within their community.

All Family Strengthening Programmes run in strong partnership with other stakeholders (government, service providers, volunteers etc.) to address the complex and multidimensional problems faced by children at risk of losing parental care as well as to have a greater impact on the lives of their families.

Results of Family Strengthening work activities with families are mainly visible on two levels:

 Social level: increased confidence of parents to find solutions for their own problems, increased capacity to provide adequate care towards children, increased professional capabilities to find a job, increased understanding about their rights and network of services in the community and

 Economic level: increased ability to manage properly household budgets, increased income level in some families due to professional courses and start of income generating activities etc. 91 % of the total families who have exited the programme are self-reliant, which show that the programme is a committed and reliable partner for the families.