COUV ACTES - Psychologie communautaire

Community Psychology: Common Values, Diverse PracticesChildren on the streets: is it a problem for the families?by Lirene Finkler 1 , Nathalia Matos Pereira 1 , Gabriela Vescovi 1 &Débora Dalbosco Dell’Aglio 1Children on the streets is a serious issue, unfortunately very frequent, in most big cities all around the worldwhere poverty dominates everyday life. We expect families to protect their children, as well as being responsiblefor the formation of individuals, teaching society’s rules and values. It’s a place for children and people to feelincluded, to feel a part of, a space for intimacy. Because of the importance of family in human development, aswell as its relevance for social policies, this study aims to evaluate the perception of families about the fact theirchildren are on the streets. Is it a problem for these families? It´s important to enhance that in this research wedon’t consider the nuclear or consanguineous concept of family. Family is taken in an amplified sense, asrelevant and affective relationships kept along life.The context of families with children on the streets is usually hard. Poverty, daily survival challenges, violentenvironment, all this issues increase social and affective difficulties to take care and raise children. Children onthe streets frequently have families in a poverty context. They are exposed do different risk factors, as drugabuse, intra and extra-familiar violence, physical, sexual and emotional abuse, lack of food and basic sanitaryconditions, child labor and school dropout (Granpal/UFRGS, 2004; Paludo & Koller, 2008). Because they areexposed to strong economic problems and serious lack of affection, studies show that populations living at riskare said, generically, as presenting a gap in physic, cognitive and/or socioemotional development. Child labor andthe school dropout is frequent. On the other hand, they can develop numerous strategies for survival and healthmaintenance, the protection factors, and family can be one of these protective factors (Alves, 2002; Yunes,2006).To understand how families experience and feel about the fact their children are on the streets can contribute toqualify interventions and families' and community's protective abilities as supportive network. The main questionsof the study are: Is being on the streets a problem for the families? How do they feel about it? What are theirhopes about their children’s future?Method14 families took part in the study which had experienced street situation and which were accompanied or followedby Ação Rua, a social program in Porto Alegre, south of Brazil (PMPA, 2006). Families were represented bymothers and grandmothers. These families were also being followed in social assistance municipal system and1NEPA - Center for Studies and Research on Adolescence, UFRGS – Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul172