Valletta residents will soon be able to make use of what has been tagged as a one-stop-shop community centre, which will bring together, under one roof, various agencies providing social services.
In a bid to improve the quality of life of Valletta residents, the Family and Social Solidarity Ministry got together with the Valletta local council, and conceived a project which will reach out to the local community, in particular its members who are burdened with social problems.
Launching the project at the historic building where the one-stop-shop community centre will be housed in Old Mint Street, corner with Melita Street, Minister Dolores Cristina presided over the signing of a contract between Agenzija APPOGG and the Valletta council, for the provision of the services of a community worker.
The community worker will be engaged for 16 hours every week to be able to coordinate the community network that will be built by means of the one-stop-shop community centre.
Minister Cristina explained that the project will be based on the first such community project that was introduced in Cottonera when Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi was Social Policy Minister.
This was a pilot project and considered by the EU as one of the best practices that others should use as a model to work on, said Ms Cristina.
The aim of the community centre in Valletta – as well as others that will also be introduced in other localities eventually – is to provide personalised services by various client-friendly measures, and the creation of both formal and informal structures.
“Most of the time, we find that people with various social problems find it very difficult to go to different places to get the help they may need. We also know from experience that many such people have multiple problems: employment, addiction, mental health, housing and family, just to name a few,” said Ms Cristina.
The actual building that will house the community centre will be refurbished and made more physically accessible to wheelchairs. More importantly, however, it will be the focal point for the provision of holistic help and a means of establishing the roots of various social problems.
Joe Gerada, chief executive of the Foundation for Social Welfare Services, said the centralisation of social services and provision of more personalised services, depending on the needs of specific communities, was the way forward and a “new” way of doing things in Europe.
Valletta mayor Paul Borg Olivier said the one-stop-shop community centre was another link in the chain of services already offered by the local council.
“We will be providing services to elderly people who may be experiencing loneliness, for example, and others who may have problems that stem from drug or alcohol abuse. It is not simply a means of reaching out to people, but also a way of empowering them to be able to find solutions to their social problems,” he said.