Local family policy

Diploma thesis Local Family Policy deals with family support provided by municipalities and other institutions on the local level. The thesis is based on the assumption that in the society there should be a family-friendly environment, which supports them and appreciates their effort. The local level of local family policy is very important for creating such an environment. Next assumption of the thesis is that policy measures take effects not only instrumentally, but great parts of their effect are also symbolical messages sent towards target groups. The thesis focuses on a quick analysis of stakeholders, who intervene into local family policies, describes main activities of municipalities in the field of family policy, identifies the best practice models and analyses existing barriers. In the next part follows an assessment of local family policy from the view of characteristics of a good local family policy, on which most of the experts agree on. Documents, semi structured and informal interviews and involved observation were used as data source for this thesis. Even though the thesis is a qualitative study, and therefore it does not present general conclusions valid for all the municipalities in the Czech Republic, it brings a contribution for its new perspective on this barely explored issue...