Family support center

Family support center

By Jelgava Baptist church

Jelgava Baptist church was founded in 1874. Currently the congregation has its own building for worship with 180 seats and utility rooms, a two-story building where Sunday school classrooms, the church office and rooms planned for a Family support center are located. At the moment the congregation has about 150 active church members of different ages. We have a Sunday school (30 children), choir (25 singers), youth ministry (10 youth), men’s ministry (8-10 men), senior/women’s ministry (15-20 members).
Jelgava is the 4th biggest city in Latvia (about 57,000 inhabitants), it is located 45 km South of the capitol city Rīga. The Jelgava region (30 km radius) has 36,000 inhabitants. Jelgava was founded 750 years ago and always has been a center of politics, manufacturing and trade.
Nowadays Jelgava is an industrial city and has many educational opportunities. In Jelgava there is the University of Agriculture of Latvia, vocational education schools such us Jelgava Technical school (which is located 500 m from the church), high schools (one of them is 300 m from the church), Zemgale Region Human Resource and Competence Development Centre, a music school and an art school.
Manufacturing in Jelgava is well developed; there are successful companies in woodworking and metalworking and also agriculture.
The biggest congregations in Jelgava are the Catholic Church, two Lutheran churches, two Orthodox churches, and two Baptist churches. All of these churches have a good collaboration with the city government.  Other congregations are Methodists, two Pentecostal churches and about 10-12 free churches.

Church outreach/mission goals and strategy.

The vision of our church – it is the place where a person’s life is changed.

1.    The main focus – families (children, youth, parents, men). Family is seen as the foundation on which to build a healthy society. We seek to strengthen families because the family is the best environment for educating and raising children. Strategy – Vacation Bible School, Sunday school, lectures for parents, boys’ workshop, men’s small group, summer camp.
2.    Support foster families, families with children with special needs, single-parent families in their psychoemotional needs. Strategy – Family support center, lectures, consultations, classes.
3.    Social work, ministering in social care institutions, support for low-income or senior families in their daily needs.

PROJECT – Family support center

Relevance of project

Following what is written in James 1:27 we want to offer professional help for families who adopt or foster kids. In our church and also in other churches in Jelgava it is notable that many people are very active in this ministry, but there is lack of professional help. The center would also offer help for families with special needs children by providing consultations and therapy to promote the child’s development according to his/her functional abilities. It is planned to offer support center services to all inhabitants of Jelgava.

Purpose of the project

By implementing this project, we plan to support foster families, adoptive families and families with children with psycho-emotional, sensory, physical and intellectual development issues. We would help parents better understand their children and their support needs through professional assistance based in biblical values. Planned results are support and encouragement for families in this important and difficult ministry, by educating them and providing practical help for the child and family.

Tasks, stages, steps that have to be taken in order to realize this project

For the Family support center, we would use two rooms in the smaller of the church buildings (for an Occupational therapy room and a Theraplay room) and a larger room in main church building for lectures and seminars.
To prepare these rooms to accommodate Family support center needs, there are bigger and smaller renovations to do:
-    Repairing the heating, ventilation and bathrooms in the smaller church building;
-    Putting a new roof on the main church building and finishing the attic space (for expanding in future);
-    Outfitting an Occupational therapy room in room which is currently used for storage in the smaller church building;
-    Repair of stairway in the smaller church building;
-    Repair of small meeting room in the main church building.
Organization and operation of Family support center
1.    Generating ideas (happening right now)
2.    Team building (happening right now)
3.    Training seminar on how to work with families (has happened)
4.    Theraplay seminar (has happened)
5.    Calculation of costs
6.    Out-fitting of premises (planned to do)
7.    Create advertising (planned to do)
8.    Work with families
9.    Camp for families (parents and children)

Repair work of installations and bathrooms in church building
Putting a new roof on the church building and remodelling the attic space (for expanding in future)
Outfitting the room for Occupational therapy
Repair of stairs in smaller church building
Repair of small meeting room in main church building
Organization and operation of Family support center
Potential date of end of project - Family support center becomes a permanent feature.

Resources that church planning to use in implementing this project:

The congregation plans to assign two rooms. One of the rooms is already renovated and the second will be partly renovated using church finances.
The provision of service – 4 church members.
Organization of camp – 2-3 church members.
Renovation work – 7-8 church members.
Making materials – 2-3 church members.

Roles/tasks of collaboration partner team

Men who are able to do renovation and/or remodelling work.
Help with funding renovation work, materials and equipment.
People who have professional knowledge in connection with support center services (psychologist, psychotherapist, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, art therapist etc.) who work with foster families, adoptive families and children with special needs.

Expected budget for the project.

Total costs of project: 50,000 euro over 3 years.
Costs for drawing up remodeling plans: 1700 euro
Church building installations and bathroom renovation – 6500 euro
Roof change for church building and remodeling the attic space – 24,000 euro
Room of occupational therapy – 2000 euros
Stair renovation work – 3500 euro
Small meeting room renovation work – 6000 euro
Outfitting of premises of support center rooms – 1000 euro
Organization of educational seminars – 500 euro
Camp costs – 2500 euro
Co-financing needed– 41,800 euro.

Cost of necessary materials for the project

Construction materials – 21500 euro
Camera 400 euro
External hard drive 60 euro
SD card 40 euros
Stand 60 euros
Carpet 100 euros
Bench, table 150 euros
Shelf 200 euros

Occupational therapy supplies

System    Supplies
Vision
    Lava lamps, 15 euro
Christmas lights, 15 euro
Different color shapes, 10 euro
mirror, 100 euro
disco ball, 20 euro
wooden toys, 15 euro
puzzles, 15 euro
sequence and shape sorting games 50 euro
Hearing
    Music center, 100 euro
CDs (classical, nature, rhythmical) 40 euro
Music instruments 60 euro
Touch, proprioceptive system    Stereognosis bags, 10 euro
Weighted blankets, 50 euro
Weighted vests 80 euro,
Tent, tunnel, 25 euro
Ball pool, 70 euro
Therapeutic dough, 15 euro
Massage balls, 15 euro
Brushes, 10 euro
Tactile pillows, 20 euro
Dart ball, 10 euro
Kinetic sand10 euro
Smell
    Small bags filled with different scents 15 euro
Vestibular system    Big pillows, 50 euro
Swing, 200 euro
Bench, 50 euro
Trampoline, 70 euro
Balance board, 70 euro
Tactile discs, 100 euro
Stairs, 25 euro
Exercise ball 25 euro
Extra    Mattresses, 370 euro
Shelves, 200 euro
Table, 50 euro

Person(s) responsible for implementing the project from your church:

Inese Drēska, project manager, Theraplay expert, inesedreska@yahoo.com
Aija Šķerberga, Occupational therapist, leader of Sunday school, a.skerberga@gmail.com
Andris Drēska, coordinator of repair work, chairman of church council, andris10020@gmail.com

Jelgava Baptist church
Mātera street 54, Jelgava, telephone number +371 63022645, +371 22003325, jbdraudze@gmail.com, www.jbd.lv