In spring 2004 SOS Children’s Villages Poland started to operate the Family Strengthening Programme “Haven” in Lublin, which enables children who are at risk of losing the care of their family to grow within a caring family environment. To achieve this, SOS Children’s Villages Poland works directly with families and communities to empower them to effectively protect and care for their children, in cooperation with local authorities and other service providers.
The construction of the fourth SOS Children's Village started in summer 2004 in Karlino. This town is situated in the northwest of Poland and suffers from great poverty due to a high unemployment rate. Therefore, many children are at risk of being abandoned, which gave reason for setting up a long-term family based care. The SOS Children’s Village Karlino went into operation in August 2005.
As numerous children living in the Children’s Village Karlino had become youths, a Youth Facility was started in Koszalin, a town situated at a distance of almost 30km from Karlino. This location was chosen in order to provide youths with better opportunities in terms of education and labour market.
The SOS Children’s Village Siedlce was enlarged by an SOS Youth Facility end of 2006. In the year 2007 the popular “playbus” was introduced in Poland. The aim of this project located in Warsaw was to enable children to enjoy childhood and gain self-esteem and social skills through playing. The service was offered in public parks, schools, hospitals, etc.
After a careful need assessment and feasibility study it was decided to relocate the project (playbus) to Siedlce and shift the project objectives towards family strengthening activities, which finally started in September 2010.
In March 2009, further family strengthening activities started in Bilgoraj, moreover, three day care centres and a counselling centre.
At present there are four SOS Children's Villages in Poland, four SOS Youth Facilities, twelve SOS Social Centres (two of them are transit homes for short term placement, ten programs concentrate on Family Strengthening) and three SOS Kindergartens.