The aim of the master thesis is to investigate the humanitarian programme ‘Sponsorship in Slovenia’ and the characteristics of its users. In the theoretical part, I first explored the history of social work and the concept of the welfare state. Then I defined the concept of (absolute and relative) poverty, the poverty threshold, in-work poverty, the determinants of poverty and child poverty. I also described public entitlements and humanitarian and non-governmental organisations in Slovenia. Then I described the activities of the Friends of Youth Association of Ljubljana Moste-Polje, its programme ‘Sponsorship in Slovenia’ and its projects. I chose this topic because, as part of the Sponsorship in Slovenia team, I have encountered many different stories of families who have one thing in common. Each of them had found themselves in a situation where they had not been able to provide their children with the basics, or they had not been able to enable them to develop their potential and talents, because they did not have enough resources to enrol their child in an activity of interest that he or she wanted to attend. The research is quantitative and descriptive. My study involved 272 parents of children who were in receipt of godparent funding as at 25.3.2024. They responded to a standardised online questionnaire consisting of 14 questions. One of these questions was conditional. I confirmed four hypotheses and rejected two hypotheses. I found that, on average, parents with lower levels of education are more likely to be recipients of funding, that we cannot say with certainty that there is a correlation between family form and time in the programme, as the risk is too high to accept (according to a calculated hi-square which is less than the value in the table of critical values), that just under half of recipients of funding are working parents, and that just under a third of respondents are unsure, whether they are eligible for at least one public entitlement, that just under three quarters of respondents use most of their recipients of funding money for the child's basic needs, and that just over three quarters of respondents estimate that, given the family's current financial situation, help will be needed for another two years or more. My suggestions for improving the research were to check the period of employment of working parents and to provide more information on the financial hardship of parents who have reached tertiary education. I would also investigate why some people are entitled to certain public benefits but do not receive them. Suggestions for practitioners would be better information on public entitlements and (non-)receipt of maintenance, financial literacy for users and better cooperation and networking between NGOs and state institutions.
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