Vote for a new Family House in the Kinderschutzbund Frankfurt!
What is the Kinderschutzbund?
The Kinderschutzbund Frankfurt (Child Protection Association) is a lobby organization for children. We aim to improve children’s living conditions, to protect them from violence, and to eliminate child poverty in every form. Our work ranges from policymaking in our national and state associations to practical daily work with children, young people and their families. Our local association here in Frankfurt has about 30 employees and over 300 volunteers.
A new projct for Frankfurt:
The Family House
In our project babylotse the Babylotsinnen (baby guides) offer advice and support to every family with a new-born baby in Frankfurt`s maternity hospitals. They meet families with many different needs and issues: questions about parental leave and child benefit, where to meet other families in their neighbourhood or questions concerning health and child development. Poverty and a precarious financial situation is a major issue for many families with young children – about 25% of the ca. 3 500 families we see each year have financial problems. Poverty causes stress and the dual tasks of covering the everyday living costs and learning to be a good parent lead to poor health, family conflicts and exhaustion.
Our aim is to use the exciting partnership with Morgan Stanley to open a FAMILY HOUSE as part of our early prevention program, Frühe Hilfen, which works to ensure that every family has a good start with their baby.
In the Family House we will prepare and store our Baby Boxes – a box with everything a baby and his/her mum need in the first weeks of life. Our Baby Boxes are packed by volunteers – with second-hand clothing from other families and donations from companies and shops. Each box is unique – packed specially for a family here in Frankfurt. We even have volunteers who knit baby blankets. We also collect and pass on baby equipment – prams, beds, baby baths etc.
We already do this work on a small scale – but with the Family House we will be able to reach more families and not just hand over the Baby Box, but also invite the families in. We will be able to sit down, talk about their new life with a baby, and see what else they need. The Family House will be a warm and friendly place – thus showing the families that it is good to talk to the professionals, but also to other parents.
How can you get involved?
The Kinderschutzbund has a long tradition of volunteer work, because child protection has to be anchored in our society and is not just the responsibility of the professionals. For example, we have Social Days:
- packing baby boxes
- cooking a nourishing lunch für children taking part in cultural projects
Pro Bono activities
- Training days for youngsters with a Kinderschutzbund Guardian (eg. Job applications and interviews)
- Supporting the Kinderschutzbund with business expertise (contracts, financial reporting, work flow systems for collecting donations for the Family House)
And once a year we need all available hands to run the Hilton Bazaar – a great charity event which raises over €40,000 in one day, enabling us to provide more therapy for traumatised children.
