FICE Austria held its General Assembly on January 19th 2021 and the Board under the leadership of the two presidents, Bettina Terp and Christian Posch, was re-elected and expanded. Currently, the Board undergoes an internal strategy and positioning process which is expected to be finalized in mid-2021.

In 2020 the focus of FICE Austria was the preparation of two new important projects for the improvement of the child and youth care sector in Austria, which just started in February 2021, both in a participatory process with child-care experts from various organizations in Austria. Both projects are externally co-funded by the Fonds Gesundes Österreich (FGÖ). Both projects respond directly to gaps identified by the Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child from the UN Commission in Geneva (2020) for Austria.

The first project is a follow-up project on the handbook on quality standards developed in 2017-2019 (“Quality Standards for Alternative Care Settings for Children and Youth in Austria) where in total 66 quality standards were developed and published in a handbook. The English handbook will be available mid-2021 for international distribution (details will follow in the next newsletter).

The objective of the new project named “Training of Quality Standards for alternative care settings for children and youth” is to jointly develop (in a participatory and interactive process) a standardized training curriculum for professionals working directly with children in alternative care settings. The project results are expected in mid-2022 and will help close a gap in the Austrian child and youth care sector.

The second project will develop Quality Standards for family support and strengthening programs in Austria. Professionals from various organizations, under the lead of FICE Austria, will jointly reflect common practices and develop quality standards that are needed in the field. The results will be published in a handbook after project finalization in mid-2022.

For any detailed information and/or if you are interested in the English publication of the Quality Standards in Alternative Care, please contact: office@fice.at