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Kazickas Family Foundation supports first homeless day center in Kaunas opened by Caritas Lithuania and Archdiocese of Kaunas in 2014. Cozy atmosphere with hot tea invites people experiencing social isolation to spend few hours every day at the center and enjoy the warmth. Day center visitors have an opportunity to interact, read books or browse through daily newspapers, play board games or solve crossword puzzles.
Center's coordinator Milita Zickute shares the main goal - to create such atmosphere that each person would feel welcome and needed. Social workers work with people who experience hardship, try to help them with their struggles and, more importantly, always listen to them. Approximately 30 people can spend time during the day at the cozy center's facilities.
M. Zickute shares accomplishments and struggles center ran into last year. It's exciting that almost every day center had at least one volunteer who brought his/her own charm, ideas, activities and innovations. Those volunteers not just stayed, but also spread the message and attracted many new people. Also, a lot of effort was put into center's visitors' involvement into the upkeep of center's facilities, its surroundings and their volunteer work as well. It was a long process requiring skill development and training. Such process freed the people, opened their capabilities and allowed them to feel important and needed.
One of main issues center deals with is society's resistance and indifference, which complicates integration process, as well as limits funding options. A lot more needs to be done to change society's old fashioned view so these people would get a second chance in life. Another important issue is the very start of innitiatives. Many people usually don't even believe in such work, but with every person that shows up at our door, new possibilities and opportunities open up. Fundamental trust and ability to see future perspectives are crucial in our work.
Two center's visitors joined the rehabilitation center, three found employment opportunities, many more found their lost skills and new motivation last year.
Homelessness usually is described as a form of poverty and social isolation which could be analyzed in the context of human rights, social and economic inequality, housing politics or flaws in social security system. However, the true reasons for becoming homeless are much deeper. That could be painful childhood story, addiction, sometimes - mental illness or divorce. Sometimes people fall victims to fraud, others have no place to return to after spending time in jail, growing up in orphanages.
Caritas Lithuania opened two day centers for homeless in Vilnius and Kaunas.