Our Youth Home

The Christian Youth Home at St. Ludmila (KDM), founded on 31.8.1992, is a residential youth home with accreditation from the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic.

The model of the youth home was tested in a two-year experimental operation between 1.9.1991 and 9.11.1993. This specific model better reflects the needs of secondary school youth in the environment of a big city and at the same time corresponds with the concept of the development of similar facilities abroad.

The key area of concern was the changes concerning the internal content and organisation in the already existing type of school establishment with the aim of humanising the overall style of educational work. From the beginning, the model was defined as open, humanizing, democratic, based on supporting the development of new activities of both the residents and the newly oriented staff. However, it is only one of many possibilities. Developmentally, the model of the residential youth home was created in three distinct phases: first as an experiment accredited by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Czech Republic under full state responsibility; later as an alternative experiment based on the assumption of legal subjectivity; and in the third phase as a broadly conceived practice implemented in the spirit of Christian pedagogy.

Basic innovative and transformational elements:
Application of the principle of differentiation of the content of the activities of the youth home staff. This is the consistent separation of two basic functions, namely the socially securing function (operational care staff) and the personal development function (leisure educators). This differentiation makes it possible to significantly increase the effectiveness of the relationship between adolescents and the staff of the establishment, who are deprived of the previously overly broad and in many cases conflicting range of professional duties and qualification requirements.

Applying the principle of enhancing the responsibility of residents for both their own academic well-being and for compliance with the basic requirements of the facility's operation.

The inclusion of extra services to meet the needs of residents so as to minimise the personal stresses which in many cases prevent them from concentrating on their studies in an effective way (services provided by psychologists, psychiatrists, legal advisers, medical consultants, spiritual guidance and other professionals as appropriate).