Social assistance services | www.torun.pl

Activities connected with providing aid to individuals and families who are in difficult social situation are performed by the Municipal Center for Family Relief (MOPR) in Toruń.

Assistance is provided in the cases of poverty, being orphaned, homelessness, unemployment, disability, chronic or serious illness, family abuse, need for maternity protection or multiple offspring, helplessness in upbringing children and running a household, particularly in single-parent or numerous families, lack of life adaptation skills of adolescents leaving social care centers, adaptation/integration problems of legal refugees, social adaptation problems of former inmates, alcoholism and drug addiction, accidents and emergency, natural or environmental disaster.

Basic objectives of MOPR activities:

• performing actions to support individuals and families in their efforts to satisfy their basic needs and enabling them to live in conditions corresponding with human dignity, in cooperation with the persons seeking help
• providing assistance to enable individuals and families to become self-sufficient and to integrate with the community, within the capacity of the Center
• enabling individuals and families to overcome difficult life situations that such persons are not able to overcome themselves by using their own means, capabilities and rights
• providing aid to children and families in the extent relevant to individual needs and the circumstances which justify the provision of social assistance, within the capacity of the Center
• Enabling disabled persons to become active involved in social life.

Main responsibilities of MOPR:

• carrying out the tasks of the municipality in the scope of social assistance and social rehabilitation;
• performing tasks commissioned by the state and tasks of the central administration delegated to the county (poviat);
• carrying out tasks included in the governmental programs and other delegated tasks of social assistance and social rehabilitation;
• creating organizational structures for providing social assistance;
• analysis and assessment of phenomena engendering the need for providing social assistance;
• awarding and disbursing financial benefits in accordance with the Social Assistance Act;
• stimulating active involvement in overcoming difficult life situations by individuals and families receiving social assistance;
• stimulating various communities and social groups to undertake self-help activities, creating a local, community-based mutual support system;
• providing aid to disabled persons as part of disabled persons social rehabilitation policy;
• organizing and coordinating care over children partially or completely deprived of parental care;
• supervising the activities of social assistance organizational units;
• providing assistance to individuals, families and communities which are victims of violence or are in a crisis situation.
• performing social work, i.e. professional activity aimed at providing assistance to individuals and families to enhance or regain their ability to function in the society, and creating conditions to facilitate that goal;
• collaborating with bodies of central and local administration, organizational units of social assistance, institutions, social organizations, Catholic Church, other Churches, religious associations, charitable foundations, associations, employers, natural persons and legal entities in order to carry out social assistance and rehabilitation tasks; 
• providing professional training and counseling for the social assistance staff;
• performing tasks in accordance with the provisions of other legal acts and executive regulations pertaining to social assistance and rehabilitation;
• Preparing estimates of the demand for social assistance in the municipality.

>>> Detailed information on social assistance is available at MOPR website: www.mopr.torun.pl