About the Programme

The Programme Included Parents (Uključeni roditelji) has been carried out in 2016 for the first time and was financed by the Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy.

The main goal of the project was to contribute to the reduction of discrimination and increased integration of former prisoners and their families by strengthening personal, parent and partner resources, as well as community inclusion through the network of parent helpers. 

Specific project goals were:

• to strengthen parent, partner and personal resources of former prisoners and raise the quality of relationships in the family of former prisoners
• to build the capacity of parent helpers to provide support for the integration of former prisoners and their families in the community and to contribute with their actions to reducing the stereotypes and the discrimination of former prisoners and their families.
• to raise the awareness of the professional and the general public at the national level on the usefulness and opportunities of active inclusion of former prisoners and their families in the community.

The activities through which these goals were being achieved are identifying and including parent helpers and parents of former prisoners, creating and implementing the training for the parent helpers’ group with the aim of empowering and raising awareness on stereotypes regarding the prison population, creating and implementing the training for the parents of former convicts on parenting, partner skills and personal growth and development.

Apart from trainings, intersectoral meetings are also an important project activity, as well as a round table with key stakeholders in post-penal acceptance who were, at the same time, associates for the project and were comprised of representatives of: The Probation Offices I and II in Zagreb and the Lepoglava Penitentiary. 

The project Included Parents has been carried out successfully in 2017 as well, including the same goals but with additional activities that included creating and implementing workshops with prisoners of the Požega and Lepoglava Penitentiaries and drafting handbooks for parents, named “ I am listening” (Slušam te).

The Included Parents programme is comprised of the following projects: Inclusive Support (Uključiva podrška),  Included Communities (Uključene zajednice) and The support is here for you (Imaš podršku).