Petra Drčić and Iva Mrdeža, representing CERANEO, participated in the organizing committee of the National Homeless Conference, which took place on October 10, 2016. on World Homeless Day in Zagreb. Representatives of CERANEO, homeless people, students of the Social Work Study Center and representatives of the Croatian Network for the Homeless gathered before the start of the Conference on Ban Josip Jelačić Square under the motto “No one hungry, no one without a roof and no one without support” in order to point out the problem of homelessness to the general public in Croatia.
About 130 experts in the field of social welfare from all over Croatia, representatives of state administration bodies and local and regional governments (county homeless care coordinators, representatives of city and county social welfare offices that organized care for the homeless in their area) took part in the conference, as well as academic communities, shelters/overnight shelters in Croatia, centers for social welfare and other institutions and organizations that contribute to the care of the homeless in the area of the City of Zagreb and Croatia.
The conference was an opportunity to learn about poverty in the Republic of Croatia and homelessness as its most extreme form, as well as care programs for the homeless in the EU, Slovenia and Croatia.
Prof. Ph.D.Sc. Gojko Bežovan in front of CERANEO gave a presentation on “Homelessness in the programs and practices of the European Union”, and Petra Drčić and Iva Mrdeža led a workshop on “Integration of the homeless”. At the Conference, special attention was also paid to the prevention of homelessness, and emphasis was placed on encouraging local and regional government units that do not implement care programs for the homeless to start implementation.
