Strategy

We wanted to draw attention to the need to inform the public about this topic and to support the importance of the role of the guide for children leaving the safety of the DD. In order to successfully reach the groups in question, we needed to reach key media outlets with as much coverage as possible. We were able to use specific stories in the media to demonstrate how a child's transition to adulthood from DD works with the assistance of a guide. Thanks to the powerful stories, we were able to increase media interest in the Restart NFVK project, which is dedicated to this issue. Veronika Kašáková, who commented on the situation of children from DD through actual figures from the survey, also gave support to this issue in the media. At the same time, we educated children from DD on the issue of leaving DD and the pitfalls associated with it through thematic workshops.

Tools and activities

Together with Oriflame, we carried out a survey to map the situation of children leaving for independent life from families with at least one parent. We compared the results with those of children leaving DD. The need for an adult to advise on independent living situations proved to be even more serious for children leaving DD. We presented a press release with the results to the media. At the same time, we got the stories of children who left DD and started to live independently with the help of a guide to the media. The ambassador and philanthropist Veronika Kašáková helped us to develop the topic in interviews. We organized a thematic workshop for the children from DD, where Veronika presented her story and revealed the possibilities of the Restart program, while we also discussed with Oriflame the important life situations that children should handle after leaving orphanages.

Results

Over 20 media mentions, including a TV report on ČT and the story of a Restart graduate on the home page of Seznam.cz. The reach of the project exceeded 10,000,000, which means that the topic reached almost every inhabitant of the Czech Republic. The results of the survey were communicated not only through the ambassador, but also became part of a separate communication and sparked a debate about the difficulty of leaving adult children from DD (existence of the problem, lack of awareness, bad legislation).

We arranged several interviews with Veronika Kašáková in which she managed to highlight the results of the survey, inform about the main goal of the project and at the same time mention Oriflame as an important sponsor. Our work produced real results. According to the Veronika Kašáková Foundation, this topic resonated strongly with the key institution OSPOD.

At the same time, thanks to the media coverage, dozens of other people interested in working as guides in the Restart programme have come forward. We also implemented the project with our SK colleagues.