Estonian Society for Rehabilitation of Addicts was created in Tallinn 1996

Work institution - Centre for Social Rehabilitation “Tootsi tuba”

Address – Angerja 14, 10416 Tallinn, Estonia

Phone/ fax - +372 660 3216

e- mail address – kalle.laane@mail.ee

Contact person – Mr Kalle Laane, director

Estonian Society for Rehabilitation of Addicts develops in this centre drug and alcoholism prevention work and criminal prevention using generally methods for psychosocial work. This work is focused on children and youngsters with high risk, under the same procedure we try to find contact with their parents in purpose to help all family to have more capacity for solving difficulties they meet in their lives.

We try to support people in communities – working with children and others – who are not incurious but want to find possibilities for healing living circumstances in our environment.

General part of our work is rehabilitation work for adolescent offenders. There are ten places in stationary of “Tootsi tuba”. Children are directed here by Commissions for adolescents with problems and by children welfare officers. After this guidance we organize the work with child according to his/her needs and special needs.

In our centre we stand fixed rules and daily proceedings. Explicative activities – advisory services, group works, school works, computer training and participation in housework – interchange with sporting and relaxation. “Tootsi tuba” is not a closed place, our children are independent to have a walks and keep school responsibilities according their recovery success.

As result of such work our children ordinarily have sharp positive changes in their behavior. However, this work is complicated and sensitive, it has own ascensions and low tides. We must to do large exertions during long time to achieve lasting results. Problems of our children are sophisticated, mostly they have lot and lasting experiences of domestic abuse and violence, they are disappointed in adults and life. Mostly children try to find consolation in these miserable circumstances by joining with gangs and starting some swindler – tricks and misusing toxic substances; more and more we meet children addicted to computer games. Similar living model is trap and responsibility of adults is to help children to go out from it. Here we have lot of problems and complications on basis that adolescent offenders themselves do not recognize their real situation as their developmental level is not high. They feel their problems as solutions for abandoning and sufferings. Real solutions can start after correcting this mistake according changes in their orientation.

In recovering work of centre “Tootsi tuba” we have four “corners”:

• Centredness to clients – every child is unique and specialist of own life
• Centredness to risks and special needs – risk-focused approach leads attention to most substantive needs of client
• Centredness to solutions – we focus to finding flexible solutions in correspondence with purposes of child
• Centredness to resources – realizing of these solutions is possible in case using a power of inner resources of child, but it is pointless to try something without having adequate resources

We do not work only with children living in our stationery, on programs of centre can participate up to 15 children living at home.

In September of this year we started a project for children in special schools.

During some years we organized a number of conferences, trainings and seminars for professional working with children.

We support meetings of AA and Al- Anon groups.

For future activities we have a lot of attractive ideas and it is pity that we do not have enough active people and support for realizing a number of them.

Still social deprivation in different forms of this is so important problem that our purpose is finding good solutions for abatement of problems generated