Karin Dom’s Work Visit for Exchange of Experience in the Netherlands
Between 18 and 21 November 2019 a team of five Karin Dom specialists made their first visit for exchange of experience which took place in the Netherlands. A total of 9 services were visited in 3 different cities – The Hague, Haarlem and Leiden, which work with people from 0 to 100 years with different conditions. This visit was part of a Karin Dom project funded by the Velux Foundations to build an international partnership network for the exchange of knowledge and experience.
Our specialists visited a center for children aged 0-4 years, a day center for children aged 2-8 years, a counseling office for pregnant women, mothers and young children, a community support center, a day center and an early intervention center, a kindergarten, a rehabilitation center, and two schools for children with special needs.
The visit was extremely interesting for our line of work and it enriched our knowledge about the services offered by our colleagues in detail, how they organize their work and activities with children, how they work with parents, how they finance their services and how they cooperate with institutions and other organizations. Our general impression is one of a stable social system that provides sustainable services and allows a full focus on the therapy and education of children, building and upgrading their developmental potential.
The impressions of our team from their visit to the centers can be divided in 4 ways:
1) Functional environment – the equipment of buildings and rooms;
2) Reorganization of the work process;
3) Upgrading the competencies of specialists so that they can apply innovative methods;
4) Networking with institutions, other organizations and specialists.
The centers have at their disposal abundant material resources built specifically to meet the needs and requirements of the users of their service – the environment is fully and easily accessible, there are no thresholds, the rooms are spacious, the windows are large, there are many open spaces for games, walks and activities. The main advantage of successful services is networking – all organizations, institutions, centers, counseling offices working with children and people with special needs are networked and work together to provide long-term and effective support for their users.
Thanks to the visit, funded by the Velux Foundations, our team built valuable contacts, accumulated ideas and planned the next steps for cooperation and development of Karin Dom partnerships.
About the VELUX Foundations
The VELUX Foundations consist of the two charity foundations VILLUM FONDEN and VELUX FONDEN. Their grants include scientific, environmental, social and cultural goals in Denmark and internationally. In 2018, the two foundations provided joint grants of approximately €168 million. The two foundations were established by the engineer Villum Kann Rasmussen, founder of VELUX and other VKR Group companies, whose mission is to bring daylight, fresh air and a better environment to people’s daily lives.
