Project Family of the organization Grow Together

Project Family of the organization Grow Together 

The PeopleShare Foundation supports the organization Grow Together on a regular basis, because within Grow Together’s work, the vision of PeopleShare is reflected. Providing children with a home goes far beyond simply giving them four walls and a roof. Ideally, children are enabled to live and grow together with their biological parents. This is made possible through Grow Together. 

Approximately 1,000 babies are born each year in Vienna into families affected by acute poverty, violence, drug addiction, or psychological problems. Overwhelmed mothers often struggle to cope with the new situation. Staying together comes at the cost of the children’s healthy development, with risks ranging from severe neglect to psychological and physical abuse. As a result, in acute crisis situations, babies are often taken away from their mothers—frequently against their will. In many other cases, these babies receive no help and suffer long-term consequences from early childhood trauma.

The “Family” project by the organization Grow Together aims to address this very issue and help children grow up in a safe and nurturing home environment. This enables the healthy development of the children and supports the social and professional advancement of the mothers/parents. Starting from autumn 2014, mothers and their babies will receive therapeutic and psychosocial support and guidance several times a week without having to give up their homes—individually, intensively, and long-term. In doing so, they learn to recognize and appreciate new patterns of relationships. Numerous studies show that the time around birth is both neurobiologically and psychosocially a proven “window of opportunity,” in which long-lasting and sustainable change is possible.

The goals of the project are:

To prevent the removal of children from their families along with all the associated social consequences.

To ensure a developmentally supportive environment for the child (with absolute prevention of neglect and abuse!).

To prevent harm by resolving damaging family patterns and achieving long-term stabilization of these changes.

To promote the best possible development and education of the mothers/parents.

The methods combine:

Long-term, frequent, and supportive psychotherapy.

Complex, intensive psychosocial support for mothers/parents during the first two years of the child’s life—partly at the ‘Grow Together’ center and partly through outreach at the families’ homes.

Networking in the sense of case management, where all involved support systems are coordinated and sustainably implemented at the parents’ place of residence.

The association ‘Grow Together’ is led by the two project initiators, Dr. Katharina Kruppa and Mag. Anna Nostitz. Dr. Kruppa is a specialist in parent-infant therapy and early intervention and serves as the medical director of the Baby-Care Outpatient Clinic at Preyer’s Children’s Hospital, the busiest clinic of its kind in Vienna (about 250 new patients per year since 2001). Mag. Anna Nostitz has many years of experience in psychosocial work with vulnerable families and in career counseling for people facing barriers to the labor market. The initiators and their professional, dedicated team aim to reach and effectively support mothers and couples whose living conditions are marked by a combination of various risk factors during the transition to parenthood. However, there is a significant service gap for these highly vulnerable families, as Austria lacks sufficient expertise in the high-risk area of early childhood. This is precisely where Grow Together applies its specialized knowledge.

The focus is on the early promotion of parental caregiving and relationship skills, and on the prevention of neglect and endangerment of the child, which often seem unavoidable in this high-risk group.

Poverty is to be combated where it arises: with young, resource-poor families or single mothers, and children who from the very beginning have little chance in our society. Nobel laureate James Heckman (2000), in his famous Perry Preschool Study, states: “The poorer the child and the less educated the family, the greater the impact of a high-quality program. The best investments are in the poorest and youngest children!”

Thus, Grow Together closes this service gap. As numerous studies show, the time around birth is both neurobiologically and psychosocially a proven ‘window of opportunity’ in which long-term, sustainable change is possible.

With the support of PeopleShare, the pilot project with six families started in autumn 2014.

For more information, please visit www.growtogether.at.