Sociétés et Jeunesses en Difficulté (May 2007)
Évaluation en protection de l’enfance : croiser les points de vue des acteurs dans une approche pluridisciplinaire
Abstract
A department of a volunteer organization of Child Protection (Alésia 14) aims to treat the parent(s)-child relationship difficulties and the violence and/or the suffering of maltreating parents. For twenty years, this team has been caring after families in crisis with young children through free phone number, social support from volunteers, tutoring and psychological counselling. These strategies of intervention were assessed through a multidisciplinary evaluation by researchers. An anthropologist interviewed the professionals of the service, all psychologists, and analyzed the corpus of letters between the parents and the service. Through interviews with 26 volunteers working with the parents or the children, a sociologist analyzed the collaboration of professionals and volunteers, the supportive services they offered and their needs of training, with regard to her previous works about cooperation in co-educational relationship. The outcome of these vulnerable families several years after they left the institutional support, was studied by the psychologist through interviews with families and members of social teams of public Child Protection.The monograph presented in this article illustrates a method of crossing data from several sources and periods of time. The related case represents some of the characteristics of other family situations cared after during the same period. This article shows the coherence in the representations of all the actors, regarding such issues as analysis of maltreatments, parental portraits and problems, types of interventions. Results indicate that reciprocal confidence, therapeutic alliance between parents and professionals is the starting point for the reconstruction or discovery of parental competences and abilities. Whatever the social environment, active networks between professional, volunteers and parents must be developped.
