Family Futures

Most of the ETAFs are managed by a civil society organiza-

tion (CSO) and supervised by the Management Unit, each

serving 40 families included in a department or location.

Teams are comprised of four or five specialists (a total of 120

hours per week) in social work, psychology, social education

and other social and human disciplines.

Households to be approached by ETAF to participate

in Cercanías are selected from an index that includes the

extreme poverty and socio-familiar situation of vulner-

ability. Extreme poverty is measured from the Gaps Index

Reviews, helped by National Assessment and Monitoring

teams (DINEM-MIDES). Socio-familial vulnerability is

assessed from a technical social report completed by

operators of various public services or social networks. By

crossing the two sources, a list of indices and situations

is generated for the Centralized Management Unit, which

coordinates with DINEM to georeference the situations in

the ETAF area. Before visiting the family, corresponding

coordinates are checked with the institutions involved so

as not to overlap or affect the operation and, if applicable,

to refer to another service. Regional committees support

this process, ensuring equity of access, giving priority to

the most critical situations and facilitating access to the

benefits, services and rights that apply.

In the process it is essential to consider the confidentiality

of the information used in these technical fields. Currently,

1,503 families are being met across the country, with a target

of 2,300. All of them have accepted the escort team .

The challenges are articulated by Cercanías to consol-

idate the national social protection system, in which

families are progressively the subjects of social policies and

programmes, and to contribute to the comprehensiveness

and effectiveness of that system.

diverse and uneven paths as subjects to whom the produc-

tion of public goods should be directed, and the required

cross-agency management this requires. This proposal also

underlines the necessity for the integrity and promotion of

rights to be made from public policy, with its inter-logic

and recognition of actions and potentials both in families

and in communities from different public actors operating

privately in the territories.

Cercanías has formed a management team to ensure level

design and implementation, technical supervision and

attendance, and to develop the above conceptualization. It

also integrates a permanent inter-institutional dialogue

with the National Monitoring and Evaluation Direction

(DINEM) to monitor the results, and to form a team that

integrates theoretical and methodological approaches that

account for the complexity of a historical-critical perspec-

tive and the qualification of equipment, with the necessary

care and ethical components (for the teams themselves

and with families) required by this intervention, proximity

and privileged communication between families, outreach

teams and the state.

The guiding principles of the this programme are:

• consolidating inter-institutionality at the territorial

and central level with the national level, through the

creation and/or strengthening of local protection systems,

involving civil society and the state

• working with families as subjects of rights and social

services programmes to provide comprehensive care,

considering the plurality of existing arrangements and the

dimensions of gender, generation and ethnicity

• developing a proximity methodology to strengthen the

capacities of family autonomy, encouraging process

participants and ensuring access to public programmes

that help improve their living conditions

• coordinating the work of interdisciplinary outreach

teams with local service networks, based within

a unified inter-agency management structure that

ensures quality work

• establishing a system of benefits and priority transfers

to participating families, which allows for simultaneous

and complementary work on the sociocultural aspects

and dynamics of households and unmet basic needs,

understanding them as a bridge to access social rights

and universal policies

• establishing a monitoring system, training and continuous

monitoring of actions to ensure a qualified work, based on

a rights perspective and generating relevant information

for setting the strategy and social policies in general.

Direct work with families is developed from the Territorial

Family Attention Teams (ETAF). They are innovative

components, working on a weekly basis with selected

families as an integral device and proximity. The strategy

began in 2012 with 27 ETAFs and grew in 2013 to comprise

55 ETAFs nationwide. The programme’s objectives are to

strengthen families for the fulfilment of duties of care,

socialization and upbringing of dependent members, and

to contribute to household access to social benefits, rights

and other community resources.

ETAFs work directly with selected families on a weekly basis

Image: Cercanías Coordination Program

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