Verena Thorn-Vogt

Verena Thorn-Vogt (born May 11, 1941 in Littau-Reussbühl , today the municipality of Lucerne ) is a Swiss woman who founded and managed the children's homes she designed herself in the Parisian banlieue .

Education and career

Verena Thorn-Vogt is the daughter of Eugen Vogt and Hedwig born. Wickart. She grew up as the second oldest with six siblings in Lucerne. She completed her high school education at the Theresianum Ingenbohl and at the Cantonal School of Lucerne with the Matura . She studied at the Universities of Zurich and Neuchâtel and at the Sorbonne in Paris . She obtained the Lucerne secondary school teacher certificate and a licentiate in Latin and German studies.

After taking up residence in French-speaking Switzerland and teaching there, she worked in Paris and was employed as a social worker in the Banlieue ( Département Hauts-de-Seine ) . She trained for the Éducatrice spécialisée .

On November 1, 1985, she opened the “La Grande Passerelle” children's home in the northern suburb of Gennevilliers in the major Parisian agglomeration and, four years later, “La Petite Passerelle” in the same city. She has also created a network of families who are ready to look after children properly (Réseau familial d'accueillantes). Although the concept was new for France, Verena Thorn managed to get approval from the General Council of the Hauts-de-Seine department for the Relais Parental project she had developed . Verena Thorn managed the two homes and the network of carer families for over 15 years. You will then be a member of the Administrative Council for 10 years.

Relay Parental

concept

The Relais Parental is an innovative care concept: a place where children, whose families are currently or periodically going through difficult phases, are admitted 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The children are admitted at the simple request of the parents, who decide freely on the length of their child's stay. The requests can be based on problems of a health nature, such as accommodation, the temporary absence of a parent, marital or educational difficulties or simply the parents or child's need for parental relaxation that can result from the constant counterpart.

The Relais Parental wants to support the parental task, which is difficult to fulfill in its permanence if the support of an extended family or a socially connected neighborhood is missing. In the anonymity of today's agglomerations, many parents not only lack the human environment, but also the social and / or cultural connection. The Relais Parental takes the grandparents' house as a model and is open to an emergency call from a parent: "I can no longer!", Without this being entered in an official register.

The relay sees itself as an alternative to admitting children to official social assistance, unless this is necessary for serious reasons. It allows the child to remain in their surroundings and the parents to maintain the intimacy of family life. For the child, the relay offers a place of safety and well-being, where they live, detached from the direct connection to their parents, in a community of their own kind, surrounded by adults, who guarantee every child a child-friendly place, without being forced or through Should conquer cunning and seduction. Daily life is determined by the rules of interpersonal behavior. The daily routine follows the ritual of getting up, eating and going to bed. They sing a lot at the Relais Parental.

The concept of the Relais Parental has been received and implemented several times, e.g. B. in the cities of Besançon , Cherbourg , Montpellier , Nantes and Saint-Nazaire .

Honor and appreciation

After overcoming the considerable difficulties and obstacles, Verena Thorn's work, who had also acquired French citizenship, was recognized: She was awarded the Ordre national du Mérite .

bibliography

• Didier Houzel: Les enjeux de la parentalité. ouvrage collectif, Ed. Erès 2010, ISBN 978-2-86586-693-9 .
• Il faut un village pour élever un enfant. In: Le Furet. N ° 35, August 2001.
• Dominique Fablet: De la suppléance familiale au soutien à la parentalité. L'Harmattan, 2010, ISBN 978-2-296-11083-0 - see in particular “Equipements innovants: Relais parentaux ou familiaux et crèche familiale préventive” p. 27 ff .; “Equipements innovants: l'exemple des relais parentaux” p. 58 ff.
• “Le relais parental”, in Gérald Boutin, Paul Durning: Enfants maltraités ou en danger: l'apport des pratiques socio-éducatives. L'Harmattan, 2008, ISBN 978-2-296-05267-3 , pp. 142 ff.
• Le Relais parental. Colloquium, November 14, 2002, Atlante, Paris 2003, ISBN 2-912671-16-7 .

Web links

• La Grande Passerelle on the official website of the city of Gennevilliers
• Documentary about La Grande Passerelle (video, 1997, five minutes)
• Catherine Bouget: Relais parentaux - un dispositif de prévention précoce à l'usage des parents (PDF file; 487 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Website of the Theresianum Ingenbohl: [1]
2. ↑ Website of the Canton School Lucerne-Alpenquai: [2]
3. ↑ Today, secondary level I: Archived copy ( memento of the original from February 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ^ History, concept and project description of the Relais Parental "Passerelle 92": [3] and La Passerelle (Garderie): [4]
5. ↑ Description under the title "Note concernant les particularités et les interêts du réseau d'accueillantes géré par l'Association Passerelle 92" in: [5]
6. ^ "Personne (s) à l'initiative du projet" dans oned, Dép. 92, “La Passerelle”, Présentation de l'action  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ oned, Dép. 92, “La Passerelle”, Présentation de l'action  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ^ "Tout est basé sur la confiance", Le Parisien April 15, 2003