As part of its activities in dealing with the issue of children at risk in the Czech Republic the Sirius Foundation has concentrated its attention on employees of institution involved in the social and legal protection of children who play a key role in the life of a child and its family if the family or parents are not functioning as they should. In view of the low number of employees of institution involved in the social and legal protection of children and the high number of cases which is continually growing the Sirius Foundation has decided to support these workers in their difficult work.

On 7^th February 2011 the 4^th grant call in the programme “Support for employees of institutions involved in the social and legal protection of children at risk” was announced with the aim of creating an education programme for employees of institution involved in the social and legal protection of children and their training.

As of the closing date for the 1^st round of the grant proceedings on 3^rd March 2011 the Sirius Foundation had received a total of 13 grant applications. Following assessment by the grant committee and the Sirius Foundation’s Board of Directors 6 grant applications made it through to the 2^nd round of the grant proceedings.

On 17^th June 2011 the Sirius Foundation’s Board of Directors decided that no grant would be awarded in the 4^th grant proceedings.

The Board of Directors did not consider there to be a guarantee that the submitted projects would be successfully and effectively executed in view of the defined target group.

The Sirius Foundation’s Board of Administration continues to consider support for the employees of bodies involved in the social and legal protection of children to be a priority in the system of care for children at risk and therefore it has authorised its subsidiary company, the Public Benefit Corporation Sirius, o.p.s. to carry out a project under the same name: Support for the employees of bodies involved in the social and legal protection of children in caring for children at risk. The Public Benefit Corporation Sirius, o.p.s. prepared this project in cooperation with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and a number of experts. More detailed information about the project is available on the following site Support of employees of children's socio-legal protection authorities in care for endangered children.