Residential home for Ukrainian refugee children and adolescents with special needs in Valladolid (Hogar MIR)

Hogar MIR, whose name means PEACE in Ukrainian, is a residential home for Ukrainian refugee children and adolescents (NNA) with special physical, mental or sensory needs. It is owned by the Gerencia de Servicios Sociales de Castilla y León and operates in the city of Valladolid, in facilities that have been adapted for the 16 minors who live there. 

Among others, the Centre offers the following general services and benefits: 

• Information for the minor through a permanent translation service. 
• Accommodation and coexistence. 
• Board. 
• Support at school and, in particular, with learning the Spanish language. 
• Psycho-pedagogical and social care. 
• Occupational, training, personal development, employment-related and other activities. 
• Leisure and free-time activities. 
• Relations with the surrounding environment. 
• Receipt and processing of administrative documents. 

 This temporary residential care service aims to guarantee comprehensive and continuous care adapted to the needs of minors at risk or without adequate protection, with a normalised lifestyle as close as possible to life in a family home, promoting, where possible, their return to their country of origin, and fostering at all times the development of their abilities and their autonomy. 

Some of the methodological principles that govern the professional team’s daily intervention are the following: 

1. Comprehensive care: This means that the intervention carried out with the minors must cover their entire stay at the centre and take into account all the dimensions of their lives. 
2. Pedagogy of everyday life: Daily life at the centre is an important intervention tool and the fundamental space for educational action. It means turning everyday moments and situations into educational experiences that take the place of family education. 
3. Adult attachment figure or key educator: This is an individualising element of the educational intervention, guiding and empowering the minor in their development. It is their attachment figure for as long as the minor is at the centre. 
4. Emotional and motivational support: Situations are fostered through which new, more adaptive strategies can be developed for regulating emotions and controlling behaviour, factors that are relevant to developing self-concept, self-esteem and the appropriate expression of feelings.  
5. Methodological diversity: The socio-educational intervention methods used take into account the principle of individualisation and, therefore, the particular characteristics of each minor. 
6. Activity: the children and adolescents are active agents in building their personal development, which fosters meaningful learning experiences and establishes cognitive networks between their previous knowledge and experiences and the new ones to be learned. 
7. Communication: there is continuous interaction between the children and adolescents and the educational team, so that the team members are accessible and emotionally close, devoting time to their relationship with each child and encouraging playful, positive and trusting interactions. 
8. Subsidiarity: the Residence uses public resources in the areas of healthcare and mental health, education, socio-cultural activities, employment promotion and professional intervention, as well as any other area that affects their well-being. In addition, private resources are used whenever necessary to fulfil custody obligations. 

The professional staff caring for these children and adolescents is made up of the following roles: management, deputy management, social worker, psychologist, speech therapist, educators, educational assistants, cooks, general services assistants, maintenance assistant, administrative staff and translators.