About Us
On April 4, 2013, social service employees met and, as a representation of their united will, they founded a civil society organization which they named the Association of Social Service Professionals (AOPSS).
Man is the crown of creation and therefore deserves professional care at a time when he is no longer able to create values for mankind.
People are social beings who wish to have their place, their role in life and in the society.
Social services are aimed at people, their families and their social networks. What services are provided depends on individual needs of persons and communities. AOPSS would like to be able to offer such services that would allow it to meet various needs with flexibility. AOPSS would like to offer education for social service workers; consulting for both the workers, as well as the recipients of social services.
The range of services offered to individuals and communities must be determined by the requirements and needs of the people, not by the needs of the system. Social services are effective only when there is collaboration among all sectors of the society. Good results may be achieved within a transparent partnership between the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family and members of professional work groups to which AOPSS would also like to belong. Collaboration, consulting and cooperation are key tools to achieving a positive outcome. Participation of parties with different points of view but with the same common interest is of enormous importance for the quality of work.
The recipients of social services and their families must have faith in the services they receive. The social service providers must be able to judge whether the services provided by them are of good quality and whether the social service workers have the abilities and the skills to provide high-quality social services, which might also be aided by benchmarking projects with best practices.
AOPSS partakes in continuing professional development of social service workers and in ensuring their high professional level.
AOPSS is interested in participating in identification of challenges and trends in college education, as well as in education of social service professionals (social rehabilitation instructor, caregiver in the spectrum of healthcare department workers).
Strategic program:
- Collaborate on developing the legislative framework for social services, comment on conceptual documents relating to social services.
- Collaborate on creating standards for technical processes in social work and social services.
- Work together to develop a comprehensive system of monitoring and assessing the quality of social services provided.
- Promote and publish examples of best practices – through conferences, seminars, publications.
- Participate in community planning.
- Participate in the creation of qualification requirements for social workers.
- Prepare a framework for the functioning of lifelong learning and thus enable continuing professional development.
- Associate natural persons who perform various occupations in social services in order to increase their expertise, qualifications and overall development.
- Facilitate distribution of professional, legislative, scientific and research knowledge and experience related to the provision of social services.
- Represents interests of AOPSS not only within domestic professional discussions but also at an international level.
- Enable its members to share their experiences and participate in international projects.
- Provide professional counselling to its members.
- Cooperate with organizations active in the social sphere in Slovakia and abroad.
- Help create a high-quality social and working environment for social workers.
