Dar Tal-Providenza - Annual Report English

This 49-page report that covers the 2019 calendar year and was approved on March 2nd 2020, highlights what Fr Martin Micallef, Director of Dar tal-Providenza, calls a year of work done by the Home in its commitment to continue to provide a residential service of the highest level to persons with disability that need this service. Fr Martin states that this was not the work of just one person and thanked the Board of the Home, Management, the Sisters of Charity, the residents themselves, and all the employees and volunteers. He also thanked the Administration of the Archdiocese and the Government for their continuous support.

In 2019, as in previous years, it was more than satisfying to see the residents living in a dignified environment in which their rights are respected and their dreams can be realised. During the year there were a lot of happy moments when residents celebrate their birthdays with a small party, when they attend activities such as feasts, weddings or concerts and, why not, a tour abroad or a trip to Gozo. One of the best moments for everyone was when a number of residents together with other established Maltese actors took part in a play at the Catholic Institute. The play “Il-Milied tan-Nannu” (Granpa’s Christmas’) had an original script by one of the Home’s employees. That was an occasion when most of our residents taking part showed their abilities. As what happens in every family, during the year we also had some tough moments as when we lost six residents, some volunteers and an ex-employee. We will ever cherish their beautiful memories as well as their useful contribution to the Home.

Another satisfying achievement for Dar tal-Providenza was the acquisition for the first time of the required licences for the operation of every home as requested by the Social Care Standards Authority (SCSA) that was set up last year through a Legal Act. By acquiring this licence, Dar tal-Providenza is showing concrete proof, if it was ever needed, that it is committed to protect and improve on the dignity, security and social protection of its residents and of those needing the use its services.

Dar tal-Providenza also continued to act on its commitment to open more homes in the community.

During the year under review a lot of work has gone into the final touches of the home in Balluta which is expected to be officially opened in 2020. Work has also started so that ‘Żerniq’, one of the homes in the community, will be completely refurbished.

During 2019, we welcomed a considerable number of visitors amongst whom H.E. Dr George Vella just a few weeks after his appointment as the President of Malta. We also welcomed various Maltese and foreign students who had a working experience or volunteered their time at the Home.

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Residences and Residents of Dar tal-Providenza The main residence is in the limits of Siġġiewi and is made up of three villas that include a total of nine flats. The Home also has four small homes in the community, and they are ‘Żerniq’ in Siġġiewi inaugurated on February 11th 1997, ‘Akkwarell’ in Qawra officially opened on November 21st 2012, ‘Dar Pirotta’ in Birkirkara opened by the Archdiocese in 2007 and passed on to Dar tal-Providenza on January 1st 2014 and ‘Shalom’ opened in Żurrieq on April 8th 2016. By the end of 2019, the homes of Dar talProvidenza hosted 116 persons with disability, 68 of them males and 48 females.

The Home strives to provide individualised residential services, either on a long ter m basis or short term, referred to as respite, to persons with disability with full respect of their rights and dignity. It strives to promote a holistic approach to personal development as well as social inclusion for all persons using its services including their autonomy as a means to make them capable to determine their own life.

other work that enriches the lives of residents and is contributed by support workers, ability promoters and physiotherapists. These members of staff, all in their own way, have helped in providing physiotherapy and ‘High Support’ services, recreational activities, workshops such as the stamps, agriculture, music, crafts and cookery workshops as well as wheelchair dancing.

Mobility Because of the nature of the disability of the majority of the residents of the Home, residents have been continuously encouraged and helped to take part in activities that help them to remain active. During the year, a good number of residents continued to make use of the therapeutic pool available in the Home.

Hydrotherapy is another service that is continuing to improve on the quality of life of the residents.

Helped by the Ability Promoters on the advice of the Occupational Therapist, some residents also use the ‘Soft Room’ that provides a safe environment as well as the ‘Multisensorial Rooms’ and ‘Music Room’ that help to stimulate their senses in different ways.

During the year under review, the Home continued to provide the necessary care for their basic requirements according to their own needs and depending on the severity of their disability. However, all residents participated in the daily activities as well as in occasional ones organised by the Home.

Work with residents is primarily characterised by assistance for their needs. This is complimented by

Transport Services Transport is a huge activity at the Home either because several residents use wheelchairs or because of the fact that the Home is situated in a rural area and somehow cut off. The Home has ten vehicles, five of which have a tail lift for wheelchair users.

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In order to continue on improving the transport service, the Home introduced seven new vehicles with accessibility, two 16-seater minibuses, two vans that can handle three wheelchairs, a vehicle that can take seven persons including a wheelchair and another one that can take one wheelchair.

Involvement outside the Home Forty-two residents attend Day Centres for Adults run

by Aġenzija Sapport. These Centres are in Marsaskala, Ħal Far, Paola, Mtarfa and Santa Venera. Another resident attends the San Miguel Resource Centre in Pembroke whilst another resident attends the Resource Centre in Wardija.

A Home resident has a full-time job whilst another five work part-time. Three residents make use of the ‘Star 25’ programme organised by Inspire.

SPRED (SPecial Religious Development) Dar tal-Providenza has, for some time now, been affiliated with the SPRED Agency in Glasgow, Scotland. This has been extremely beneficial for residents with intellectual disability to grow in their faith. For these catechesis sessions, every participating resident is accompanied by a catechist helper.

During the year under review each resident attended six SPRED meetings whilst the catechists had twelve, half of which were dedicated to preparations for the welcoming of the residents. Twelve SPRED groups

are now being coordinated, two of which welcome members from outside the Home. These meetings take place in the mornings Monday to Friday and on certain days in the evenings. Each group is made up of six residents together with their accompanying helper and led by two catechists.

Respite Service In 2019, the Home hosted 49 persons for various durations of respite. These varied from a short period of a few hours to allow the family to attend to a wedding or a funeral as well as longer periods of days or weeks where the family members have went on a holiday abroad or had some welcome rest. A number of persons made use of respite for a period of a month or more mostly because of serious sickness of one of the parents. Dar tal-Providenza believes that this support is necessary so that children or relatives with a disability can continue living in their own family environment as much as possible.

Management Meetings The Board of the Home set up by Archbishop Emeritus Paul Cremona OP in March 2011, is chaired

by Fr Martin Micallef, Director of the Home and composed of six members. It met nine times during the year.

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The day-to-day administration is taken care of by a Management Team chaired by the Director, Fr Martin Micallef with Sr Lorenza Borg, Superior of the Sisters community, Mrs. Nadine Camilleri Cassano, Administrator, Ms Remona Cuschieri, Services Coordinator, Fr Trevor Fairclough, Spiritual Director of the Home and Head Physiotherapist Mrs. Margaret Vella. The Management team meets on a fortnightly basis and during the year under review met nineteen times.

New Projects The new projects list includes: • Work on the latest home to be opened in Balluta.

Painting of rooms is completed as well as the work on the façade. Kitchen has also been installed; • Two new cold stores, sponsored by the company Infinitely Xara, have been installed; • A new Wi-Fi network financed by MITA is in place and every part of the Siġġiewi Home now has free Wi-Fi access; • The Home has invested in a new payroll system that will be operational as of January 2020; • Discussions are still ongoing on a licence for a Client Management System; • Refurbishment works are at hand in ‘Żerniq’ financed by the Marigold Foundation BOV In The Community. These works are expected to be completed in 2020; • Refurbishment at ‘Dar Pirotta’ including a new kitchen and soundproof windows in the bathroom has been completed; • The purchase and installation of an industrial washing machine and tumble dryer at the Home’s Laundry; • Purchase of new lockers and wardrobe for the residents of Villa Papa Giovanni; • Ongoing maintenance and refurbishment works in other parts of the Siġġiewi Home.

the mobility of residents. A number of volunteers work in the kitchen, laundry, seamstresses section, maintenance, stores or the bazaar. The registered number of volunteers is 220.

There are outside groups that during the year volunteer their time to do various works in the Home and another substantial number of volunteers that help out during the annual fundraising events, Festa ta’ Ġenerożita’ on New Year’s day and the Volleyball Marathon in July.

An annual reception is organised for all volunteers of the Home as a sign of appreciation for their work.

This year’s activity was held at the Falconry Centre in Siġġiewi.

Three volunteers at the Home, Mary Verzin and Ġemma and her husband John Paris, were amongst ninety-four nominees for this year’s Active Ageing Awards.

Fund Raising Activities Tthe two major fund raising activities are the Festa ta’ Ġenerożita’, which raised a record breaking sum of €1,275,442 and the Volleyball Marathon that raised €687,795. the other events were: The Friends of Providence House NSW, a group that is the official ambassador of Dar tal-Providenza in Australia, organises annual events that raise funds for the Home through sponsorships, activities and personal donations.

Volunteers The Home has a number of volunteers that work directly with residents or in flats or helping out in 100 • Annual Report 2019

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Conferences and Meetings Every year, the Home’s Director, Administrator and other members of the administratiion team attend conferences and meetings on a various range of topics focing on the disability sector.

Other fund-raising activities include Walks, Bike Rides, Concerts, BBQs, Pasta Nights, Fine Dining such as the one organised for the third year running

by Infinitely Xara Co. Ltd. owned by the Zammit Tabona family and other events organised by various Local Councils. Another annual fund-raiser, averaging €70,000 per year, is the so-called ‘25c Scheme’ in which an appreciable number of companies and government and Church entities participate. The Home also manages fund-raising schemes such as the distribution of coin boxes in shops; ‘Karus ta’ Mħabba’ coin boxes distributed in various parishes furing Lent for cathecism classes for children preparing for their First Holy Communion and Confirmation and Bookmarks for special occasions such as weddings, birthdays and anniversaries whereby guests are asked to donate money for Dar tal-Providenza instead of purchasing gifts.

We have a Valletta office, manned by volunteers, that opens mornings from Monday to Saturdays were people can go make their donation to the Home instead of having to come to Siġġiewi.

A regular fund-raiser is the Dar tal-Providenza diary that is distributed in every household in Malta and Gozo. A limited number of wall and desk calendars is printed and given out to donors mostly during the New Year’s Day Festa ta’ Ġenerożità.

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The Home continued to give its share to the work of the Forum of Organisations for Providers of Residential Services to Persons with Disability. Other entities represented in the Forum besides Dar talProvidenza are Dar il-Kaptan, Fondazzjoni Wens and Fondazzjoni Arka. This year the Forum focused on issues related to the National Standards for Homes for Persons with Disability.

Employees In order to function properly and efficiently the Home had, until December 31st 2019, 286 employees (one addition to the previous year’s total) of whom 218 were on a full-time basis and 68 on part-time basis.

Of the total amount, 210 were females and 76 were males. During the year under review there were 40 new employees whilst another 37 terminated their employment and another 5 retired.

On December 10th 2019, three employees, Anna Mifsud, Margaret Micallef Gauci and Emmanuel Buhagiar where presented with a memento in appreciation of their 20 years of service. Ten employees, Margaret Scicluna, Rita Aquilina, Rita Pintly, Raymond Bartolo, Josefina Gabriel, Ernest Caruana, Carmen Attard, Peter Zammit, Adelina Farrugia and Francesca Fonk retired from work during the year under review and were presented with a memento.

The Seamstresses Section at the Home was given the Team Initiative Award for the year 2019 whilst David Muscat and Rita Pintly were presented with the Personal Initiative Award.

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Interaction with Employees’ Union Dar tal-Providenza believes in and gives the right to its workers to join a Union that defends their interests in the workplace. The General Workers’ Union represents the majority of workers and thus the Home recognizes its right to negotiate and come to agreement on behalf of all workers. The Home maintains excellent relations with the Union.

Towards the end of 2019, discussions took place with the Union on a new Collective Agreement for the workers that covers the years 2020 to 2023. Agreement on the package was reached and is waiting for approval by the employees in the beginning of January 2020 which would lead to eventual signing of the Agreement that will then go into force.

and other multimedia content in Maltese and English.

This electronic site is of a great help for those wanting to know more about Dar tal-Providenza, the services it offers and how can help be provided.

The Home’s facebook page as at the end of the year under review has 15,067 members who can regularly access news and activities taking place.

Media exposure of the Home is well covered. The major promotions being the Festa ta’ Ġenerożita’, Xarabank and the Volleyball Marathon.

Dar tal-Providenza featured in PBS’s TV programme ‘Umani’ produced by Maria Muscat. Some residents, workers and Sr Geswina were interviewed on the programme.

Finances of the Home

Safeguarding

One of the most important administrative function is the handling of thousands of donations that are given personally, by mail, through bank accounts or other electronic facilities. All donations are entered into an electronic programme that provides easy accountability and assures all safeguards against possible cases of fraud.

Dar tal-Providenza takes very seriously its responsibility to safeguard its residents and is committed not to allow any kind of abuse of residents that use its services. In doing this, the Home follows meticulously the Policy drawn up in the document issued by the Church in Malta “Policy and Procedures in Cases of Sexual Abuse” as well as Maltese legislation.

On this basis, the Home has also drawn up its own Safeguarding Policy and Ms Remona Cuschieri was nominated by the Home’s Board as the Designated Safeguarding Officer. Throughout the year, new employees were made aware of these policies and procedures.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers are the auditors of the Home.

Donation of PG Group shares Entrepreneur Paul Gauci presented Dar tal-Providenza with €750,000 worth of PGplc shares as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility programme. This means that the Home will not only receive the capital value in shares but will also receive dividends depending on the company’s performance.

Electronic sites and Facebook During this year, Dar tal-Providenza launched a new electronic site that has different sections focusing on the various aspects of the Home including its history 102 • Annual Report 2019

As requested by Law, all new employees or volunteers will have to go through a thorough recruitment procedure including an Appeal (Rikors)to the Courts to check whether any person is in the official Register that lists all persons who committed a serious crime against minors and no one is taken on before the Court’s confirmation that there are no problems.

On the subject of safeguarding, the Director and Services Coordinator of the Home attended a consultation meeting on the Draft of a new document on a Safeguarding Policy of the Malta Archdiocese.

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This meeting was organised by the Safeguarding Commission of the Archdiocese.

Fr Martin’s concluding remarks on the work undertaken during 2019 are noteworthy. He said that the work of and by the Home cannot go forward if not with the help of God’s Providence that has never failed Dar tal-Providenza. Thank God that during the year we were not short of benefactors. We had encouraging contributions from the Maltese and Gozitans alike in Marathons that were organised as well as in smaller fund raising activities. Daily donations kept coming in as well, thanks to the so many individuals, parishes and entities that always keep us in mind, not forgetting those benefactors who died and took care of the Home in their Will. The generosity of the Maltese is indeed a show of total trust in our work.

Dar tal-Providenza remains committed to keeping alive the dream that Dun Mikiel Azzopardi started more than fifty years ago. This report clearly shows this commitment.

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