Work at the Project

Main principle : welcoming the children is the priority.

Is considered work anything that sustains the life of the home and is done by the assistants with the help of children when they want to participate, or in any case any time where at least one child is involved.

Thus the scope is wide : spending time with the children, attending meetings, preparing meals, going shopping, car and building maintenance, cultivating the vegetable garden, cottage industries if any, cleaning, dish-washing...

Each assistant chooses some of these activities and while performing them must try to remain open and welcoming to the children if they want to join, even if it will lower efficiency : i. e. take the time to explain to the children, let them try, be open to any suggestion from them, all of this is not wasting time but building relationships with the young persons and proving them that they are welcome because we adults appreciate their company whether they want to help or not.

Also, while hands are working, children may feel more at ease to start talking about difficult personal matters, which is excellent for the cure progress.

Furthermore, such work situations might be of great help for restoring the children's self-esteem. And this is building their future as well as they can try different activities, and thru real experience be able later to consider a professional career.

In all tasks in the home, safety and care to the children have priority on mere efficiency : assistants should stop any activity they are engaged in if a child comes and wants to talk (availability principle), except in case of an important deadline, then the child has to be informed why the assistant can not stop and be proposed an other time for meeting as soon as possible.

Work by the children : children may help wherever they wish but nothing is expected of them in advance, knowing that when the relationship with the assistants is good each child will spontaneously come to help for the pleasure of company and the interest of doing something.

This allows us to see when a child engages in nothing that some blockings have to be analyzed.

No amount of weekly or monthly hours of work is required from anybody : it is left to the assistants' free will, believing that each adult involved will make ceself useful to the home or to the children at the rhythm one finds best for ce and for everybody in the household.

Different people have different abilities and strengths, each adult is therefore free to establish one's own schedule and to look for one's contentment and balance as long as the children's needs are fully covered.

No count of hours done is kept because the place being a home frequently there is no clear cut limit between work time and free time, similarly to a regular family like when playing with children.

This principle of no amount of compulsory work is designed to let the assistants be available for building relationships, focusing on children's emotional difficulties and on their own as well when coping with the children : no schedule is in the way, with the exception of some appointments that have to be made, or if children benefit better of some activities like therapy sessions when they are regularly scheduled so that the children feel comforted by the planned routine.

On the other hand assistants remain free to pursue their own areas of personal interest or studies, each person being one's own master as to how to organize one's own life in the best way possible.

Work outside the project : is possible for meeting personal needs or for gaining more personal income, but we need always to see that children's needs are not neglected if some assistants are away too frequently.

rev. 2013