Social Center VanTran (PDF)

Name: Tran Minh Van
Mykolas Romeris University
Faculty of Social Technologies

SOCIAL CENTER
1/ Introduction:
Social Center is a former parish established in 1989 with the aim of proving
necessary support to those who have less opportunity of a standard living. In order to
fulfill the increasing of different demands from different target groups, the center
developed various branches of social work group such as Social Association Station in
1991 or Family Support Center in 2003 to provide the appropriate support.
2/ Target groups:
- Children who have social or psychological difficulties or are from families with
less developing opportunity
- Adolescent/ young adults who encounter psychological or social problem or are
unemployed.
- People with mental disabilities
- Families who face social difficulties
3/ Organization and mission:
Social Center is divided into different groups to support different types of clients

Social Center

Mental Disability

Open Community

The Yard/ The Way

Child & Youth

Child 2 Child

Tranzitas

Tramplinas

SOFKĖ

Name: Tran Minh Van
Mykolas Romeris University
Faculty of Social Technologies

Group: Child & Youth
 Day Center (Child 2 Child): the main target of this group is children who have
difficulties with learning, behavior or emotion. Social workers of this group
mainly support children to analyze and overcome their problems, help them
prepare homework, provide social skills training, individual consultation for
children and parents and other material, social and psychological support to
families facing these difficulties.
 Transit: this group includes teenagers from 12 to 14 years old. Teenagers at this
age usually face problems with emotion and sometimes they cannot understand
themselves, what they need and what they want. Social workers in this group
provide them help with self-analyzing to solve emotional troubles or support them
with homework preparation and social skill and sports training. Moreover, social
workers also hold recreation activities and events for them such as trips and
camping.
 Tramplinas: group for children from 14-18 years old who also encounter social
problems. These troubles could be related to mental health, social life,
unemployment or occupational orientation. The main mission of social workers in
this group is to assist them to overcome these difficulties, find a place for them to
study as well as to provide consultation regarding occupational choices or social
and psychological issues. Workers also represent them at school, in front of police
or court where issues take place.
 SOFKĖ: this group includes homeless young adults or those who do not attend
school on weekdays. Social workers approach them to offer opportunity to join a
community in the Social Center to have fun, play games with other young adults
who usually hang out on the streets.
Group: Mental disability Including two minor groups which are Open Community
and The yard (The way), this group majorly focuses on people who are mentally
disabled. Social workers train them specific skills such as painting, artisan, iconmaking so that they can manually produce the artwork by themselves and sell
those to earn income, this work implicitly encourage these disabled people by
making them realize that they are a part of the society and they are not socially
excluded.

Name: Tran Minh Van
Mykolas Romeris University
Faculty of Social Technologies

4/ Main funding source:
Social Center is granted funding from different sources:
- Ministry of Social Protection and Welfare
- EU and other funds
- Agency of International Cooperation of Youth
- Business companies and private donors
- Social Guardianship Department of Vilnius government
5/ Personal experience and reflection:
I experienced this type of organization in Vietnam once. This type of organization
was established under form of a coffee shop called Sakura by a Japanese woman. The
coffee shop mainly focuses on mentally disabled people. This Japanese woman opened
this shop in order to provide job opportunity to people who have down-syndrome to work
as waiters and waitresses.
The Social Center draws much attention and interest from me because I enjoy
working and supporting children so much because I think they as well as disabled people
are vulnerable and unprotected and they need a lot of help, they cannot take care of
themselves. I see myself pretty suitable for working with this type of organization and
this target group. The Social Center attracts me not only with what they are doing but
also with how they are doing and how they present themselves. If I can speak Lithuanian
well, I really look forward to volunteering here to gain experience.