How Can Services and Communities Come Together The Experience of One Stop Service Centres

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How Can Services and Communities Come Together?
The Experience of One Stop Service Centres
The ACCESS Project in Malta
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Improving Service Accessibility

• Currently there is a European-wide challenge to
  make services accessible to people and in so
  doing to reduce barriers and strengthen
  partnership between services and cohesion in
  communities

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Vision of the Project

• Listening to people assessing their needs
  issues
• Being supportive, inclusive, valuing ALL
  service users, volunteers and staff
• Working in partnership with other entities
  seeking to build alliances of benefit to the
  community
• Delivering Quality in all that we do to achieve
  best with our resources
• Striving to remove barriers to participation by
  ensuring accessibility to services working with
  community groups
• Planning evaluating practices enabling staff
  to work effectively within the community
• Addressing the particular needs of children,
  listening to them and enabling them to have a
  voice
• Promoting a culture of service user involvement.

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The ACCESS Partners

• Appogg Smartkids Family and Child Care Centre
• Appogg Cottonera Community Services
• Employment and Training Corporation
• Department for Social Security Regional Office
• Housing Authority
• Day Centre for Persons with a Disability
• Foundation for Educational Services

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How ACCESS functions

• It falls under Ministry for Social Policy as do
  most of the entities operating within it
• Board of Directors oversees overall strategy
• Centre has operational plan covering a 12-month
  period
• Training and team-building events serve to
  facilitate positive working relationships between
  staff from different entities
• Service users are often referred to other
  services by their first point of contact
• Joint projects are organised between the entities

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Examples of Joint Projects and Services

• Job Club provides skills based training and
  support towards employment and integration in
  society
• Women in Work Project tailor-made courses to
  increase participants self-esteem and
  employability
• Parenting skills course
• Project REACH targeting absenteeism in
  adolescence
• Progett Taghlim (Teaching Project) promoting
  literacy
• Pre-Adolescent Outreach Project offers a space
  for young people (9 11) for creativity
  self-expression through informal educational
  activities
• Klabb Sajf (Summer Club) provides a safe
  environment informal education activities in
  summer for children (6 12)

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Monitoring and Evaluation of Service Provision

• In 2006, a Business Plan covering a 3-year period
  was developed
• Overseeing the Implementation of the Operational
  Plan is the responsibility of the ACCESS manager
  who reports to the Board of Directors on progress
  at each meeting
• All services keep various data providing info on
  the uptake of services keep track records of
  waiting lists
• Evaluation reports prepared for specific projects
• Staff appraisals carried out on an annual basis
• Attention is paid to standards of care and these
  are strictly adhered to in order to ensure
  quality of service
• International Peer Review (2007)

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Challenges to the ACCESS Project in Malta

• Scepticism from local Authorities
• Lack of a holistic service that reflects real
  needs
• Inadequate Follow-ups on clients
• Fragmentation between levels of administration
• Absence of co-working with civil society
• Lack of integration of services
• Negative predisposition towards certain clients
• Lack of understanding of minority groups
• Low self-esteem and community apathy

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Results

• Local Authorities involved in design
  implementation of programs
• Joint projects with local authorities
• Users involved in certain program design and
  follow up system by social workers
• Employment and social community programmes based
  on empowerment
• Joint projects for specific unemployed persons
• Joint projects with NGOs
• Joint Operational planning between entities

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Results (Cont.)

• Awareness of service provision
• Joint projects with local authorities
• Joint projects with local organisations
• Staff empowerment training
• Staff training and culturally sensitive training
  with diversity as a value promoted in training
• Open days events targeting school children
• Open days for adults and children to boost the
  prestige of the services