The profession of a family assistant in Poland

In Poland, the family assistant is appointed to perform family assistance and foster care work. The key responsibilities of the family assistant include helping parents to suitably fulfil their care and educational functions and enhancing family members' skills in finding solutions to everyday challenges. The monograph presents a historical outline of family assistantships in Poland and the current state of implementation of this service. The formal and legal foundations of the work of a family assistant and a model of methodical operation developed by the author based on the idea of empowerment were presented. This model is recommended by the Ministry of Family and Social Policy in Poland. It was also implemented by Caritas in Ukraine in work with families affected by the war crisis. This monograph may also provide inspiration for action researchers and social workers in other countries.