About Us

About Us

The role of the Asso­ci­ati­on of Fos­ter Fami­lies is to sup­port fos­ter fami­lies and other care pro­vi­ders in the­ir deci­si­on to give the­ir chil­dren a hap­py fami­ly life.
We pro­vi­de the chil­dren and the fos­ter parents with a con­ti­nuing sup­port, expert con­sul­tan­cy, edu­cati­on, accom­pa­ny­ing and expert assistan­ce. We con­tri­bu­te to the
posi­ti­ve deve­lo­p­ment of the dis­a­dvan­taged chil­dren and young peo­ple and help them to enjoy a good qua­li­ty of life in our society.

Our aims :

The target group

The tar­get group includes :

The wider tar­get group includes :

Our acti­vi­ties :

History of the Association of Foster Families

The Asso­ci­ati­on of Fos­ter Fami­lies was foun­ded in 1995 by fos­ter parents, the couple Hana and Miroslav Opat­řil in par­ticu­lar. The main focus was to iden­ti­fy the sub­sti­tu­te fami­lies wil­ling to care for the aban­do­ned and dis­a­dvan­taged chil­dren and to pro­vi­de fos­ter fami­lies with some expert assistance.

We started with three volunteers. Today there are 30 employees.

The Asso­ci­ati­on star­ted its acti­vi­ties in a ren­ted one-room apart­ment within a block of flats in Brno – Juli­a­no­va. The acti­vi­ties were carried out by the three afo­re­men­ti­o­ned volun­teers. Later on the Asso­ci­ati­on employed two per­ma­nent employe­es, it was only a part time job. From 2015 the­re are over 20 peo­ple wor­king for the Asso­ci­ati­on. The Asso­ci­ati­on is current­ly pro­vi­ding the­ir ser­vi­ces not only in Brno, but also in Pil­sen, Bys­tri­ce pod Hostýnem, Zno­jmo and Prague.

We took an active part in the transformation of the system of care for the children at risk in the Czech Republic.

Sin­ce the foun­dati­on of the Asso­ci­ati­on we par­ti­ci­pa­te in the acti­vi­ties of expert groups on local as well as gover­n­men­tal level that aim to pre­pa­re incen­ti­ves and sug­ges­ti­ons to further deve­lop and enhan­ce assistan­ce for the chil­dren at risk in the Czech Repub­lic. Sin­ce 2003 we have intensi­ve­ly sup­por­ted open dis­cus­si­on on the need to trans­form the sys­tem of care for the chil­dren at risk.
We per­ma­nent­ly pro­vi­de a spa­ce to give opi­ni­ons on this mat­ter to all inte­res­ted sub­jects and experts in the peri­o­dic Gui­de throu­gh Sub­sti­tu­te Fami­ly Care issu­ed by the Asso­ci­ati­on. We also ini­ti­a­ted series of expert mee­tings, among others the con­fe­ren­ce „A Child in the Sys­tem of the Sub­sti­tu­te Fami­ly Care“ (Brno, 2009) and The Dilem­mas of Fos­ter Care in Case of Chil­dren with Seri­ous Pro­blems (Brno, 2016).

We introduce new needed services for foster parents.

The main aim and pur­po­se of the acti­vi­ties of the Asso­ci­ati­on is a direct assistan­ce and sup­port of the fami­lies with the cared for chil­dren. During our functi­o­ning in the field of sub­sti­tu­te fami­ly care we have loo­ked for and deve­lo­ped expert ser­vi­ces assis­ting a good functi­o­ning of sub­sti­tu­te fami­lies. As one of the first we have star­ted to pro­vi­de respi­te care sin­ce 2008 and assi­s­ted con­tacts sin­ce the end of 2010.

We make examples of the good practice of life of substitute families visible to wider public.

From the very begin­ning we stro­ve to pro­mo­te and pub­li­ci­se sub­sti­tu­te fami­ly care, the fos­ter care in par­ticu­lar. We draw atten­ti­on of the pub­lic to exam­ples of good practi­ce of the life of fos­ter fami­lies. We among other things sup­por­ted pub­lishing of the book writ­ten by Dag­mar Zezu­lo­vá Home is the pla­ce you donť get kic­ked out of. To cele­bra­te the 25th anni­ver­sa­ry of the Asso­ci­ati­on we have issu­ed a remar­kable book „Lifes“. Twen­ty fami­lies entrus­ted us with the­ir fates descri­bed in twen­ty enga­ging life stories.

We organise campaigns and publish a magazine.

Sin­ce its foun­dati­on the Asso­ci­ati­on has suc­ce­e­ded in fin­ding new loving fami­lies for hun­dreds of chil­dren. We orga­ni­se cam­paigns to pro­mo­te fos­ter care, pro­vi­de basic ano­ny­mi­sed infor­mati­on on the chil­dren avai­la­ble for the sub­sti­tu­te fami­ly care and thus medi­a­te poten­tial con­tacts with inte­res­ted regis­te­red appli­cants via the column „We are loo­king for you, Mum and Dad“. We pub­lish The Gui­de Throu­gh the Sub­sti­tu­te Fami­ly Care maga­zi­ne, which is dis­tri­bu­ted throu­ghout the Czech Republic.

We were assigned to carry out social- legal child protection.

From 2013 we are an orga­ni­sati­on assigned to car­ry out social-legal child pro­tecti­on and we sign Agre­e­ments on pro­vi­si­on of fos­ter care. The fos­ter parents are legally entit­led to the accom­pa­ni­ment ser­vi­ces and respi­te care.

We also support other substitute families than those that fall within the Agreements.

We appre­ci­a­te the age-long sel­fless work of the fos­ter parents and we assist them even after the effect of the­ir Agre­e­ment ends. We rea­li­se that the fos­ter parents need our sup­port and accom­pa­ni­ment after the­ir child comes of age, until he/she is fully inde­pen­dent and we are open to such coo­pe­rati­on. We also sup­port ado­p­ti­ve fami­lies that are not legally entit­led to the accompaniment.

We aim towards the vision that all the children will have mothers and fathers in their life. We accompany pairs and individuals in finding their role in motherhood and fatherhood. We assist the parents in finding their unique role in the lifes of their biological as well as cared for children. Please, accept our invitation to the joined adventurous and sometimes very demanding journey, which upbringing in a family undoubtedly represents.



Mgr. Ing. Pavel Šmýd
Chairman of the Association of Foster Families z.s.