Homeless children are often a hidden part of the society, though their need visible in plain sight, regarded as those that exist on the edge, perceived as shadows within society, often living in learnt fear. The intent of this dissertation is to discover how architecture can be used to convey a sense of security and stability, while providing the user with a sense of identity. That through the architecture, one can understand themselves within a space, and how space can allow them to live individually and collectively with others. The Programme of a shelter for Child-Headed families, seeks to explore the value of a shelter within an urban fabric, as a space that provides a semi-permanent solution to children who have experienced loss, and are in vulnerable situations. Exploring the notion of homelessness as far more than just a lack of shelter or having no place to sleep but advancing an opportunity to improve the lives of this socially excluded group, through architecture that speaks to identity, social inclusion and creating a sense of place. Exploring the value of a shelter within an urban fabric, as a space that engages the socio-spatial concepts, to create spaces and environments that are inclusive, and yet exclusive enough to create a haven of safety for its user, which they can identify with. / Mini Dissertation (MArch (Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Architecture / MArch (Prof) / Unrestricted

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Toronto, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 274-312).

(in English) The diploma thesis is devoted to the topic of meeting the needs of users of shelter homes for mothers with children in the Czech Republic. It defines the form of residential social services for mothers with children in Czech legislation. It approaches the target audience of the institution and addresses the causes that may have led to the need to find a service. It specifies the most frequently solved needs, problems, deficits of shelter-seekers. The general part deals with social work methods that can be used in direct work with clients during their stay. The empirical part examines the needs of shelter clients from the perspective of social workers. Based on the assessment of the nationwide questionnaire survey, the results are compared with the views of the clients in the form of structured interviews to verify the reality of the data. The research part of the thesis is closed by an analysis of methodical tools for the identification of client needs used in several selected shelters for mothers and children. The results of the work bring the identification of the areas and the specific needs with which the social workers of the shelters all over the Czech Republic meet. Interpretation of results opens the way for a wider specification of social work performed in shelters for mothers...

This thesis deals with the life of mothers with children in the shelter. The thesis maps expectations of these women about living in the shelter in the confrontation with their real experience. The thesis is divided into several parts. Theoretical part consists of nine subchapters where the basic concepts related to the issue of social services - shelters, unfavorable social situation, social exclusion and social inclusion are defined. The thesis describes the principles of the activity of shelters for mothers with children, deals with the state of care for mothers with children in our country and characterizes the development and changes in the function of the family. The thesis also deals with the reasons leading to the loss of housing, the issues of homelessness and housing accessibility. It describes and characterizes the possibilities of social protection of mothers with children without home, besides social services - shelters also conditions for entitlement to social benefits and the relevant legislation. The empirical part defines the objectives, research methods and results, which are illustrated and described in tables, discussion and final summary. The main aim of the thesis was to find out the expectations of the mothers with children about the life in the shelter in confrontation with their real experience. The partial objectives of the thesis were to find out for what causes mothers with children come to the shelter and how their needs are met. Research questions have been identified for these objectives: For what reasons do mothers with children seek for help in the shelter? What are the expectations of mothers with children about living in the shelter? What is the real experience of mothers with children living in the shelter? Were the expectations of mothers with children about living in the shelter met? Empirical part of the thesis was processed by the method of qualitative research using semi-structured interview with opened questions. For data evaluation the method of open coding was used. The research group consisted of six women - mothers with children living in the shelter in the South Bohemian Region. Given the sensitivity of the topic the identification data of women and the shelter were not mentioned in this thesis. The research pointed out the issue of (in)availability of housing for single mothers with children in the unfavorable social situation. The most common reason for loss of housing is the break-up of the partnership, the dismissal of housing and lack of funds. The research also revealed that the main expectation of all interviewed women is to provide accommodation and stay with their children. This thesis helped to find out which services the clients seek the most and whether their needs are fulfilled.

This work aimed to comprehend how social mothers give meaning to their daily life in an Institutional Shelter and to analyze their inter-relations with the making up of Professional identity. We were guided by a Historical-material dialect of man and world and the expression of this in Psychology which considers the making up of a person as a human being as a material and historical character and is made up in and from the established relations between I and the other throughout ontogenesis. We also assume that the process of building professional identity of the Social Mothers surges from a network of personal and social articulated interactions which make multiple meanings possible in a dialectic process. We then performed a qualitive research in which we interviewed two professionals (Social Mothers), responsible for the direct care of children in temporary and exceptional shelter. Interviews were taped individually and completely transcribed. From there, we defined, through an adaption of idea association maps proposed by Spink e Lima (2000), four general categories: 1) family history; 2) work at the shelter; 3) the social mothers and the children; 4) the social mothers and other actors of the guarantee of rights system. The basic fundamental that oriented our analysis was the interpretive character of knowledge, highlighted by Gonzáles-Rey (2002), which consists in a process of giving meaning to the expressions of the participants in a way of integrating them so as they can make sense to the group of researchers. Our interviews produced a context of review and emergence of meanings upon the activity Social Mother made from phylogenetic development as well as ontogentic development. Family histories were highlighted especially those that were connected to meanings of child, family and Institutional Shelter. The question about what it is to be a Social Mother led to talk of the professionals to a movement of fusion (action repetition) and differentiation (creation) in the construction of meanings on social mothering played by them. We emphasize however that professional identity is not a data or a fragmented product, an isolated character lived by the person in his/her life, but a whole in composition involving multiple social roles inserted in historical and cultural context. / Este trabalho teve como objetivo de compreender como as mães sociais significam o cotidiano no Acolhimento Institucional e analisar suas interrelações com a constituição da sua identidade profissional. Pautamo-nos numa concepção materialista histórico dialética de homem e mundo e na expressão desta na Psicologia, que considera a constituição da pessoa enquanto ser humano como um caráter material e histórico e se dá pelas e nas relações estabelecidas entre o eu e o outro ao longo de sua ontogênese. Também partimos do pressuposto de que o processo de constituição da identidade profissional das Mães Sociais emerge a partir de uma rede de interações pessoais e sociais articuladas, que possibilitam a construção de significados múltiplos em um processo dialético. Frente a isto realizamos uma pesquisa qualitativa, na qual entrevistamos duas profissionais (Mães Sociais) responsáveis pelos cuidados diretos de crianças em situação provisória e excepcional de abrigamento. As entrevistas foram gravadas individualmente e transcritas na íntegra. A partir daí delimitamos, por meio de uma adaptação do mapa de associação de idéias proposto por Spink e Lima (2000), quatro categorias gerais: 1) história familiar; 2) o trabalho no abrigo; 3) as mães sociais e as crianças; 4) as mães sociais e os outros atores do sistema de garantia de direitos. O princípio básico que orientou nossas análises foi o caráter interpretativo do conhecimento, realçado por Gonzáles-Rey (2002), que consiste num processo de dar sentido às expressões dos participantes, de forma a integrá-las de tal maneira, que passem a fazer sentido para o conjunto de pesquisadores. Nossas entrevistas produziram um contexto de revisão e emergência de significados sobre a atividade Mãe Social, constituídos a partir, tanto do desenvolvimento filogenético, quanto das relações estabelecidas ao longo de seu desenvolvimento ontogenético. Sobretudo, realçaram suas histórias familiares, que se conectam aos significados de criança, família e abrigo. Perguntarmos sobre o que é ser Mãe Social conduziu os discursos das profissionais a um movimento de fusão (repetição de ações) e diferenciação (criação) na constituição de significados sobre a maternagem social protagonizados pelas Mães Sociais. Enfatizamos, portanto, que a identidade profissional não é um dado ou um produto fragmentado, um personagem isolado dos demais vividos pela pessoa em sua vida, mas sim um todo em constituição, envolvida por múltiplas determinações e múltiplos papéis sociais, inseridas em um contexto histórico e cultural. / Mestre em Psicologia Aplicada

Les Soninkés sont originaires d'une région à la triple frontière entre le Mali, la Mauritanie et le Sénégal. Leur présence en France a été étudiée sous l'angle de la migration de travail, mais pas sous celui des pratiques culturelles et artistiques. Ma thèse vient questionner cette dimension inaperçue. L’enquête ethnographique commence dans les chambres standardisées d’un foyer de travailleurs migrants, lieu d’hébergement pour hommes. J’étudie d’abord de quelle manière les habitants du foyer manipulent l’espace sonore du bâtiment pour se l’approprier. Les musiques qu’ils écoutent et les vidéos de fêtes qu’ils regardent depuis leur smartphone signalent de nombreux lieux en Ile-de-France et en Afrique de l’Ouest autour desquels s’organise la diaspora soninkée. Afin de parcourir ces lieux comme ethnographe, j’intègre la troupe de danse Xhambane Kaffo, basée à Sarcelles. A la suite des danseuses et musiciens rencontrés dans la troupe, je me rends dans les salles des fêtes privées, les espaces culturels municipaux, les théâtres, où ils animent autant de mariages, de journées culturelles, de fêtes associatives ou d’élections de miss. Je me rends également à Bakel, au Sénégal, à rebours du parcours migratoire du directeur de la troupe, ainsi que dans la région du Guidimakha, en Mauritanie, auprès des familles des habitants du foyer. En prenant la musique en filature, ces déplacements me permettent d’étudier comment des hommes catégorisés comme migrants s’inscrivent dans des réseaux à la fois interpersonnels et transnationaux. Ni en France ni en Afrique de l’Ouest, la diaspora à laquelle ils participent n’a de lieu dédié, tel que le serait un centre culturel, mais elle est bel et bien située. / The Soninkes come from a borderland between Mali, Mauritania and Senegal. Their presence in France has been studied in terms of labour migration, but not as a cultural and artistic diaspora. My work concentrates on this unnoticed social dimension. The ethnographic survey begins in the standardised rooms of a Parisan shelter for migrant workers. First of all, I study how the shelter’s inhabitants, only men, shape their living space through sound. They live in confined spaces but the music they listen to and the videos they look at on their smartphones refer to a plethora of spaces in the Paris region and in West Africa. To explore these communities, I join a Soninké dance troupe called Xhambane Kaffo (We are all united in the same language) located in Sarcelles, a short drive north of Paris. Following the dancers and the musicians of this troupe, I go to reception halls, to municipal spaces, to theatres where they lead wedding parties, cultural days, association meetings and elections of diaspora queens. The survey moves then to West Africa : first to Dakar and Bakel, Senegal, following the artistic journey of the Xhambane Kaffo’s troupe director ; then to Mauritania, to meet the families of the Parisian migrant workers. Moving from one point to another allowed me to show how these men, categorized as migrants and single, sit within both a transnational and interpersonal social network. My work argues that if some cultural and artistic practices, such as the Soninkés’ diasporic encounters, are categorized as « invisible » in the urban area, it is because they are seen through a sedentary vision of space.