The Saint Christopher Association for Children and the Elderly was established on May 9, 2015, in Bucharest, following several social-philanthropic, educational, cultural, and spiritual activities carried out at placement centers in Rm. Vâlcea and Bucharest.
The vision of the Saint Christopher Association for Children and the Elderly is a more open world for children, the elderly, and needy people, who need a better and more humane life.
The mission of the Saint Christopher Association for Children and the Elderly is to provide assistance to children, the elderly, and needy people, in order to achieve immediate and long-lasting changes in their lives.
The association had from the very beginning of its founding (2015) as its priority strategy collaboration with other partners for faster and more efficient assistance to beneficiaries, having partnership agreements signed and responsibly assumed. It is also open to any proposal for collaboration or initiative coming from companies interested in involvement in social responsibility projects dedicated to children, the elderly, and disadvantaged individuals and families.
With the support of our collaborators, donors, and sponsors, we manage to consistently help the Association's beneficiaries (children, elderly, and social cases from Bucharest and Ilfov).
With the help of our media partners, we succeed in making the Association's projects and programs known online and offline, which represent and define us as a charitable organization that takes care of those who need financial, material, and psycho-emotional, social, and professional counseling!
The main purpose of the Association is to fund therapy programs for people with pervasive developmental disorders, language disorders, autism spectrum disorders (ASD), hyperkinetic disorders with attention deficit (ADHD), developmental delay, and any other developmental disorders.| For this purpose, the Association initiates, promotes, and carries out activities (campaigns for redirecting up to 3.5% of the annual tax due, sponsorships, and donations) regarding fundraising to financially support therapies for people with pervasive developmental disorders, language disorders, autism spectrum disorders (ASD), hyperkinetic disorders with attention deficit (ADHD), developmental delay, and other developmental disorders.
Beneficiaries: Children with autism, especially those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and hyperkinetic disorders with attention deficit (ADHD).
Our activity is based on four principles that guide every intervention: We are close to those who need support. We listen, understand, and represent people in poverty or exclusion, so that their voice can be heard. We provide help suited to each situation. Our support is practical and adapted to the real needs of each person. We support everyone's development. We invest in education, emotional support, and opportunities that help people build a better future.| We strengthen community ties. We encourage relationships based on trust and mutual support.We get involved where lives are changing. We support initiatives and projects that fight poverty and exclusion.
We know how difficult it is for young graduates of the “Social Work” program to find a job in their field, as work experience is required. In this regard, we want to help them.
We are looking for Social Work graduates who reside in Bucharest and who wish to do an internship with us as a volunteer for 6 months, aiming to develop and practice skills in assessing social cases in Bucharest and Ilfov. Afterwards, they will receive a certificate of practice that includes all the skills acquired, with the goal of facilitating employment within a DGASPC or private institution, having a much higher chance of employment because they have gained basic knowledge in evaluating and assisting social cases registered with our Association.| For more details, write us your intention to get involved at: [email protected] and we will contact you as soon as possible.}
We are looking for volunteer psychologists and psychotherapists.|
We need volunteer psychologists and and psychotherapists, who can help us identify the help needs of our beneficiaries, who face various mental health issues, in order to provide them with integrated assistance.| It is very difficult to help those with mental conditions unconditionally, without stigmatizing them in any way! That is why the need for specialists to support us in our mission is vital!| Psychologists and psychotherapists can provide psycho-emotional support and therapy, while we intervene to address immediate social, financial, and material problems. For more details, write your intention to get involved to: [email protected] and we will contact you as soon as possible. If you know social workers/psychologists/psychotherapists at the beginning of their professional journey and eager to help unconditionally in Bucharest and Ilfov, do not hesitate to recommend them to us, thus contributing to helping those who need us.
Every contribution counts!
Children and the elderly in institutional care do not receive attention, warmth, or family love, and the social cases monitored by the association struggle with financial and material shortages. The purpose of the Association for Children and the Elderly "Saint Christopher" is to unconditionally help the children and elderly within the DGASPCs of Sectors 1-6 of Bucharest, as well as to provide concrete support to needy individuals in Bucharest and Ilfov.|We need your help now to continue supporting the activities and projects of the Association, because only "by giving will you receive."
Here your donation transforms dreams into reality for children, the elderly, and the needy! Children and young people in institutional care and those from disadvantaged families with whom we work constantly need long-term support, continuous encouragement, and guidance! Help us continue to be by their side! Your donations turn into center visits, outings, trips,Every amount that is added counts because it helps us provide quality social and educational-training services! We thank you very much for your support! Only together can we constantly support our beneficiaries! The association was founded in 2015 and is registered in the Register of Associations and Foundations with no. 65 / 15.04.2015, Sector 1 Court, Bucharest. APCSB Sf. Hristofor, CIF: 34444822, is eligible for deductible sponsorships according to the decision of Sector 1 Public Finance on 07.06.2019
In a world increasingly challenged by crises and uncertainties, there are people who, although they do not have much, keep something invaluable in their hearts: hope and the desire to do good, unconditionally, for those in need. This is nurtured, year after year, by generous souls who choose to give, get involved, and bring joy where shortages weigh the heaviest.
From February 22 to April 3, 2026, the Saint Christopher Association for Children and the Elderly, in collaboration with ASCOR Bucharest, organizes the traditional Easter collection for needy people in Bucharest and Ilfov.
We now invite you to take part in this initiative of generosity.
We will prepare packages with:
- non-perishable foods (flour, cornmeal, rice, oil, sugar, canned goods, etc.),
- traditional products for the Easter meal,
- personal hygiene products,
- sweets for children.
Together we can do more for needy elderly people.
For some of us, food is a natural thing.
By redirecting 3.5% of your income tax, you help us put food on the table for needy elderly people: lonely people with small pensions, who are often forced to choose between food and medicine.
Dear ones,
Easter holidays bring, for many of us, peace, family, and the joy of being together.| However, for some children and many elderly people in care centers, these days pass in loneliness, mistrust, and silence, without hugs, without the traditional family meal, without the feeling of being awaited by someone dear who thinks of them, at least during the holidays.
Behind every door in these centers are the souls of children and elderly people forgotten by their own families, who wish for one thing only: to be heard, loved, and accepted.
And this year as well, with the help of kind-hearted people, we want to bring them the joy of the Resurrection through packages that will contain:
? sweets
? fruits
? juices
? personal hygiene products |
A small gesture from you can mean a lot to someone who no longer expects anything. A package given with love can bring a moment of joy and the comfort of feeling that they are not alone.
The General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection, Sector 6, carries out social assistance measures in the field of child protection, family, single people, elderly people, disabled people, as well as any person in need at the level of sector 6.
The institution has the role of ensuring, at the level of sector 6, the application of government social assistance policies and strategies in order to prevent and combat social marginalization and poverty.
In this regard, the General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection, Sector 6, develops its own social assistance strategy, social assistance plan and action programs in the field, depending on the needs of citizens in the administrative-territorial unit.
In order to achieve the attributions provided by law, the General Directorate mainly performs the following functions:
strategy, through which it ensures the development of the strategy and annual plan for the development of social services, which it submits for approval to the county council, respectively the local council of the Bucharest municipality sector;
coordinating social assistance activities and protecting the family and the rights of the child, people with disabilities, victims of domestic violence, the elderly, etc., as well as measures to prevent and combat situations of marginalization and social exclusion in which certain groups or communities may find themselves at the county level, respectively the sector of Bucharest;
administering the funds at its disposal;
communicating and collaborating with the decentralized public services of the ministries and institutions that have responsibilities in the field of social assistance, with the local public social assistance services, as well as with representatives of civil society that carry out activities in the field, with representatives of private providers of social services, as well as with the beneficiaries;
executing, by ensuring the human, material and financial means necessary for implementing strategies regarding anti-poverty actions, preventing and combating social marginalization, as well as for resolving individual and collective social emergencies at the county level, respectively the sectors of Bucharest;
to represent the county council, respectively the local council of the Bucharest municipality sector, internally and externally, in the field of social assistance and child protection;
to promote human rights, a positive image of individuals, families, vulnerable groups.
In the field of child and family protection, the General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection Sector 6 ensures respect for the rights of the child through counseling services, prevention of separation from the family, proposes and applies special protection measures for children in difficulty or with disabilities.
In the field of protection of adults (single people, elderly people, etc.), it supports these categories of people in need through counseling and provides them with adequate services in order to restore and develop individual and family capacities in order to overcome the difficult situations they find themselves in by providing financial, material and legal support, under the terms of the law.
It also ensures the necessary protection measures for the rehabilitation of adults who have been in situations of risk.
In the field of protection of persons with disabilities, it ensures respect for the rights of persons with disabilities by providing assistance, counseling, care, treatment, recovery, rehabilitation, guidance and vocational training services, as well as other types of services, depending on the needs of persons with disabilities, based on their classification in categories of persons with disabilities.
Mission
Motto – “People are our concern”
The General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection Sector 6 offers quality social and medical-social services and ensures the application of social assistance policies and strategies in the field of child protection, family, single people, elderly people, persons with disabilities, as well as any persons in need within the Sector, under the conditions of effective and efficient use of available resources, the existence of a social and medical-social infrastructure adequate to the needs of different categories of the population and the promotion of the highest possible quality standards.
Vision
The General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection, Sector 6, aims to develop and provide integrated social and medico-social services based on the needs of the community at high quality standards, with professionalism and involvement.
The multitude of theories is already a well-known characteristic of the vast and diverse field of socio-humans. It is now recognized that the same phenomenon or social process can be understood, described and explained in different, sometimes contradictory, ways. This may seem confusing at first glance, but this is precisely where the specificity of the socio-human sciences lies: humans and the social world can be seen and explained from different perspectives, and their numerous aspects can become comprehensible not only through the framework of understanding offered by a single theory, but by combining several theoretical models. The temporal and spatial context, the historical context, the particularities of the situation and the specificity of the phenomenon studied are factors that, at a given time, can determine the preeminence of a theory or the choice of a particular explanatory model. Social work is no exception to these observations. Itself a vast and complex field, constantly expanding and reorganizing, social work has adopted theories from other social sciences, but has also developed, especially in the last half century, its own theoretical models, which, based on the specificity of the experience of care practice, reconsider the descriptions and explanations of human behavior, needs, social relations and processes, or the purpose and form of institutionalized support and help. It is precisely this intercorrelation of theory with practice that has led many models stemming from the experience of practice to adapt to its needs and develop concrete solutions for action and intervention, appropriate to the specifics of the field of social work.
This book aims to provide a synthesis of the main theoretical perspectives used in social work, following the theoretical development in the social sciences – especially psychology and sociology – from which they were taken and highlighting their specificities and the way in which they were adapted to the field of work, adding to these the theoretical and methodological models developed within social work.
The work is structured in eight large chapters, each of which – apart from the first
chapter, which provides an introduction to the debate on theory, in
general, and theoretical development in social work, in particular
– deals with distinct theoretical perspectives: psychodynamic perspectives and the psychoanalytic tradition, behaviorism, systemic perspectives and models,
radical and critical perspectives, the humanistic perspective, the
constructivist perspective, perspectives on individualized social work
(casework models). Within each of these perspectives, different theories and models are presented, significant both for the paradigm in which they
fit and for their relevance in social work. As will be seen, each of these theories and models contributes, to a greater or lesser extent, to the structuring of the observation of reality, providing information about what and how to observe, to its description, providing the concepts and terms necessary for the adequate reporting of what has been observed, to the explanation of observed phenomena, providing the framework of analysis for interpretation and for the discovery of causal links, to the forecast regarding the evolution of certain phenomena, through the induction and deduction techniques they propose, and, finally, to the configuration of the intervention specific to social assistance, through the methodologies and instruments of action and change developed. The book has a primarily pedagogical vocation, being the result of the didactic activity carried out and remodeled over several years. Therefore, it is addressed especially to students of social work, but also to students and master's students from other related fields,
interested in the issues of social work. The book can also be a
useful guide for practitioners in the field, for researchers, but also
for any other person interested not only in peer support, but also in a
scientific framework for this activity.
13
Chapter 1
IMPORTANCE OF THEORIES IN SOCIAL WORK.
STAGES OF THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENT, ASPECTS AND
CLASSIFICATIONS OF THEORIES IN SOCIAL WORK
In this chapter, the concept of "theory" will be delimited and defined and its meaning in both spontaneous knowledge and scientific knowledge will be discussed. The connection between the terms "theory" and "practice" will also be discussed, and other relevant terms, such as "model" and "perspective", will be defined. Next, after a brief discussion of the importance of theories in the field of social assistance, a series of classifications of theories in social assistance will be presented, as well as the way in which they have evolved and developed over time. The chapter concludes by addressing the dilemma regarding the status of social assistance.
ajutor umanitar