Best Practices
1. Name of the practice
2. City
3. Years in operation
4. Objectives
The goal of the program is:
– leveling differences between citizens residing in Szczecin;
– creating conditions for using various forms of preferences, discounts and facilities that will support the family;
– increasing accessibility for families and their members for various types of goods, including culture, leisure, sport, recreation, tourism, education offered by organizational units of the City of Szczecin, municipal cultural institutions and for goods and services offered by other public institutions and other entities interested in participating in the program;
– support in the educational process of children and youth in families in particular need and promotion of family-friendly places existing and emerging in both the public, non-governmental and private sphere, distinguished by a certificate issued by the City of Szczecin;
– financial support for members of Szczecin families in both the educational and caring process.
5. Description - overwiew
Family is a great value for the City of Szczecin, and the role of local government is to create the best conditions for its harmonious development. The family finds an important accent in the Szczecin 2025 Development Strategy, and the city’s mission contained in this document, as one of the most important development elements, recognizes conditions as a determinant of attractiveness to the life and work of its inhabitants.
Guided by the concern for Szczecin families, on July 16, 2012, the Szczecin City Council adopted a resolution on the introduction of a FAMILY FRIENDLY SZCZECIN program in the city.
The long-term and developmental character of the Program allows its extension and modernization, adapting it to the current needs of residents of both the Szczecin City Commune and neighboring communes (Kołbaskowo, Police and Dobra), which have signed or will sign an agreement on joining the FAMILY FRIENDLY SZCZECIN program.
Another example of supporting the residents by the City of Szczecin is the introduction of cash benefits “Guardianship voucher”, ie:
1. “Guardianship voucher: PLN 500” – up to PLN 500 / month for parents of children from the age of 12 to 48 months of age in order to subsidize the form of care chosen by parents in a private nursery, children’s club, carer or nanny.
2. “Guardianship voucher: multiple births” – a one-time benefit for guardians in the amount of PLN 5,000 for each child born from multiple pregnancy, i.e. three or more children
3. “Care voucher: Alzheimer 75” – for carers of people with Alzheimer’s disease paid in tranches of PLN 1,000 each.
6. Field of application
Economic support. Strategy.
7. Target
Parents, children, seniors.
8. Budget
9 Evaluation - impact - outcomes
Constant increase of residents’ interest in the Program and benefits.
By the end of 2018:
1. over 46,000 Szczecin Family Cards have been issued;
2. over 16,000 Szczecin Senior Cards have been issued;
3. 819 payments of the “Care voucher: Alzheimer 75” have been made;
4. a payment was made for 10 children under the “Care voucher: multiple children”;
5. on average, nearly 500 families each month used the “Guardianship voucher PLN 500” benefit.
