Promotion and Protection of Childhood and Adolescence - The “Child Contact Centre”

Abstract

This paper wants to study in deep one of the existing services to help and to improve the parent-son’s relation: the “child contact centre”. This centre is a place where children can meet their parents after different family problems, from parental conflicts until violence and abuses. It’s very important that each child could have the possibility to continue to live with his family as reported by the “UN Convention of childhood and adolescence’s rights” (1989). The history of these meeting centres is very recent and, in the same way, also the role of the social workers. For this reason, research of peculiarities of this place and the rules of the operators involved is very important. In particular, the history moment where we are living today with the “Covid-19” spread all over the world, has caused many problems in the families and it has compounded family situations already compromised. The choose of this theme is also born from the need of study in deep the organization and the functioning of a child contact centre. This is one of the services most complex and heterogeneous and that’s why even today again it doesn’t exist one guideline that is the same in each contest. Finally, the paper wants to describe this service and, mostly, it wants make some proposals about the best practises or operations that could improve it.