Web documents for volunteers

PET P PROGRAM INFORMATION FOR TEACHERS, EDUCATIONAL CONSULTANTS, PSYCHOLOGISTS, DOCTORS AND OTHER INTERESTED PERSONS

Dear Ladies and Gentleman

we would like to tell you about the PET P program. It is modeled after similar Big Brothers & Sisters programs in other countries and allows people within our country to help each other.

The main goal of the PET P program is to help guide school-aged children with some social or medical problems.

This goal is achieved via occasional get-togethers and each child is paired with a selected adult. Similar programs have been around for many years in other countries, such as the USA and Israel, and are evolving in Central and Eastern European countries, such as Poland and Lithuania. The PET P program currently proceeds 6th year in Prague, Brno, Olomouc, Usti nad Labem, Liberec, Pilsen, Kromeriz, Hradec Kralove, Nove mesto na Morave, Ceske Budejovice, Trebic, Zlin and Ceska Lipa.

In all regional centers, the programs concentrate on a team of volunteers, most frequently students. A special program team was created to work with volunteers, ensuring that this help would be constant. The registered volunteers must pass a training program, which includes information on preventative psychological investigations. Parallel supervision is available for the volunteers during their contact with the selected child. Also, several specialists, psychologists and family advisors, with longstanding professional experience, participate in the supervision of the children. These procedures guarantee that the PET P program functions in a controlled and professional way. I.e. private information is not misused and volunteers cannot overstep certain boundaries. Supervisors, trainers and coordinators of PET P encourage volunteers to create relationships, which promote continual respect for one another. They can achieve this by being the contact person between a family and their relevant specialist and they encourage whatever actions will benefit the child.

There are many complications, in terms of personal situations, which arise when children are registered into the PET P program. From the parents, we often encounter different ways of living, which can be extremely difficult to deal with. The program tries to create a friendly environment for the family in the hopes of reducing relevant difficulties. In our experience, children are introduced to PET P by educational consultants, social workers from the department for child welfare, district authorities, psychologists and psychiatrists. Sometimes parents come to us directly for help, but can also contact us indirectly via other associates.

The numbers of Big Brother/ Big Sister pairs, arising from the PET P program, are now in the hundred, most of which get along without further systematic or special care. The friendly relationship built between each child and young adult, along with his or her collected experiences, demonstrate the necessity and benefits of the PET P program.

f you are interested in the PET P program and would like more informations on how to become involved, please do not hesitate to contact us.