CONNECT LIVED EXPERIENCE
The Ostrava connection
The Faculty offers social science degrees in a range of fields and provides a platform for young researchers to launch their careers. Teaching at the Faculty is closely integrated with research, reflecting the latest developments in social sciences and keeping step with newly emerging fields. Studies at the Faculty are integrated with professional service providers.The Faculty directs research at contemporary social issues, mainly at social exclusion. The emphasis is on exclusion from housing and persons at risk of social exclusion due to their age or health state and the role of social work and health-social services.
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Contacts: alice.gojova@osu.cz & eliska.cerna@osu.cz
Experts by experience Ostrava
Socially disadvantaged people as „experts by experiences”. This project, realised from 2018, involves people with various disadvantages (addiction, homelessness, anorexia, etc…) in the courses for students of Social work programme. Experts by experience have a history of using social services. Now they act as „co-teachers“. They share their life experiences with students through storytelling method and help students to identify the needs of people in difficult life situations. Through involvement of disadvantaged people students improve their skills and competences, especially their ability to communicate and to be oriented in different fields of social work practice. The project at the same time offers a prestigious work opportunity for disadvantaged people. Experts by experience are trained in storytelling participatory method, which helps them to integrate their difficult experience within their life story and openly communicate about it. Currently the platform of experts by experience consists of 9 people. They are a part of 15 courses and cooperate with 12 professor assistants. The project is run by a support team that consists of 2 academician and 2 PhD students. The team functions as an intermediary between experts by experience and teachers of selected courses.
The faculty supports a project of student-led initiative, called ZEBRA supporting needs of the student from below. Their mission is to involve students in various activities related to diminishing prejudices and stereotypes amongst students and in society. They organize various public actions, presentations and movie screenings with human and social rights themes. They organize clothes and food collections for people without homes or other disadvantaged people in the city of Ostrava. They run student-led forums for supporting student’s issues based on learning process and personal lives. They rise the voice of the students towards academic staff and articulates ideas and demands in the hierarchical institution.