Prague will cooperate with the foundation on the expansion of social services
The Prague City Hall will cooperate with the Abakus Endowment Fund of the founders of the Avast software company to expand social care in the metropolis. The city council approved a memorandum on Monday, according to which the fund should contribute to the preparation of new activities of community residential services, funding is complicated for the municipality for legal reasons.
The new capacities are to serve the mental people with disabilities or illnesses that the city now accommodates in large inpatient facilities. The city operates 14 of them and according to previous information, 11 of them are outside the metropolis.
Since taking office, the city councilor for health care and social affairs has been criticizing Milena Johnová (Prague Sobě), who is pushing for the construction of smaller residential facilities directly in Prague. According to her, clients of social services should always be able to stay in the metropolis if they wish. Cooperation with the non-governmental sector should also help.
“We have encountered some systemic problems where the capital has barriers given the legal framework,” the councilor said. According to her, the problem is that the city can provide subsidies to non-profit organizations that establish a substantial part of social services only after inclusion in the regional system of care. Therefore, it cannot give them money for activities that need to be secured before registration, such as the equipment of premises or the provision of staff.
It is these activities that should be funded by the Abakus Foundation on the basis of memoranda. According to the selected municipality, the endowment fund will distribute 2.5 million crowns among the four service providers according to the selected municipality, which will make it possible to provide beds for about 20 people. “We have been supporting the social and health field for a long time and I believe that the resources of our family endowment fund together with the professional work of non-profit organizations and an enlightened public sector approach can bring lasting change for the better,” said Pavel Baudiš, co-founder of Abakus and Avast.
After taking office at the end of 2018, Johnová launched a number of audits of social facilities, especially located outside Prague. According to the councilor, the inspections first revealed a mistake in the Svojšice Home in the Kolín region, whose director Vítězslav Forman was dismissed by the city management. This was followed by audits in three other facilities, after which the directors of the Center for Social Services in Prague (CSSP) Tomáš Ján and the home Zvíkovecká Kytička in the Pilsen region Jana Česká resigned.
-čtk-