PORTAGE IN THE CZECH REPUBLICSince 1993 when the first Portage Workshop was held in the Czech Republic we have developed our own workshops. These are now offered on a regular basis twice a year, 73 participants attending during the last two years. Home Visitors are now working from around 50 workplaces: institutions, centres etc. in 32 towns in the republic. Meetings for Home Visitors take place four times a year at the Paprsek - Sunbeam Centre - with an average attendance of 50 Home Visitors. Many participants travel long distances but so far we have been unable to establish self-contained regional centres.We have found Portage to be very useful in its classical form directly delivered to families but alongside this it has a broad application in work with children carried out in Day / Weekend Centres and in the residential institutions which still survive in this country. In these circumstances Portage provides a direct response to individual children presenting diverse and multiple disabilities. Nowadays we have to face the situation where many Home Visitors carry large caseloads as a result from shortage of funding to support the activities of the workplaces where they are engaged. In this situation Portage visits have become less frequent: once every 3 or 4 weeks. In the spring of this year we sent questionnaires to all Portage Home Visitors known to us. We received returns from 37 Visitors. Unfortunately these are not representative of the whole group and many recipients who we know make regular Portage visits did not respond. From the 37 colleagues who responded we can record that 19 colleagues work with 184 children in families, 17 colleagues work with 83 children attending outpatients clinics, and 15 colleagues use Portage with 163 children attending day centres or living in institutions. We are committed to taking Portage forward in the future with the support of our English and International Portage family. Jaroslav Sturma, Director Paprsek Centre
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