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Support for family caregivers

To mark the 125th anniversary of CSS, the CSS Foundation is providing a total of CHF 1.25 million in financial support to ten organisations. The money will go towards projects targeting people who provide physical care and emotional support to relatives.

The CSS Foundation

The CSS-Stiftung has been supporting charitable institutions in Switzerland since 1987. To mark CSS’s first 125 years in business, the CSS Foundation is now disbursing a special, one-off donation totalling CHF 1.25 million. It is no coincidence that all ten organisations which will benefit from support for the next three years are devoted to assisting family caregivers. Lucrezia Meier-Schatz, Chair of the Board of Trustees, explains: “The motto CSS has adopted for its anniversary year is ‘Together. Side by side.’ The institutions that have now been selected all follow this guiding principle.” Having reached its basic decision regarding the funding, the Board of Trustees analysed a list of potential recipients. “In the end, we chose to limit ourselves to just ten organisations that operate in the different language regions and satisfy the 12 criteria laid down by the Board of Trustees,” Meier-Schatz discloses.

Easing the strain

The aim of the financial support and main criterion for receiving a contribution was to help ease the strain on people providing at-home care for a relative. Meier-Schatz points out that “Part of the idea behind this was to take preventive action: it's well known that family caregivers often make personal sacrifices that cause damage to their own health.” When choosing the projects, the trustees widened the focus beyond traditional areas such as caring for the elderly. “Instead, we looked at every generation and a range of medical conditions,” Meier-Schatz states. The Chair of the Board of Trustees describes the selection procedure as an “extremely thrilling and rewarding process that opened up new vistas for us. For example, we came across a number of small, private organisations where an unbelievable amount of voluntary work is being done, including paediatric palliative care.”

Ten organisations selected

The following ten institutions will receive financial support as part of CSS’s 125th anniversary celebrations:

  • Stiftung allani Kinderhospiz, Bern; to expand the therapy on offer at the children’s hospice and help finance the training of volunteers
  • Alzheimer Schweiz, Bern; to build a nationwide community platform
  • Association Romande des Familles d’Enfants atteints d’un cancer (ARFEC), Lausanne; to expand the assistance offered to families of children who have cancer
  • HIKI – Hilfe für hirnverletzte Kinder, Zurich; to expand the assistance offered to parents of children with brain injuries and their healthy children
  • Förderverein für Kinder mit seltenen Krankheiten, Uster; to expand the opportunities for parents of children with rare diseases to meet and exchange views
  • MaRaVal Maison des associations, Sion; to expand the social counselling and support offers for families of children with rare diseases
  • MGR Associazione Malattie Genetiche Rare Svizzera Italiana, Giubiasco; to expand the social counselling and (holiday) support offers for families of children with rare diseases
  • Pippilotta Kindertrauerbegleitung, Hubersdorf; to train volunteers in providing bereavement support to children
  • Pro Pallium Schweizer Palliativstiftung für Kinder und junge Erwachsene, Olten; to expand the services on offer and train volunteers in providing support to children and young adults in need of palliative care
  • Stand by You Schweiz, Zurich; to build its own community platform for relatives of people with mental health problems.

Deliberate restraint

The trustees made a conscious decision to restrict the number of organisations to ten. “We could easily have given 50 organisations a smaller one-time donation,” says Meier-Schatz, “but we really wanted to be able to champion projects that would deliver long-term benefits not only to the organisations themselves, but also to the ultimate target group – the family caregivers they support. That’s why we had in-depth discussions about which new or existing projects we wanted to see carried out thanks to the money.” Some of these organisations can now go ahead with plans they were previously forced to shelve due to a lack of financial resources. “And we’ve enabled other institutions to turn their ideas into actual projects,” the Chair of the Board of Trustees adds.

The motto CSS has adopted for its anniversary year is ‘Together. Side by side.’ The institutions that have now been selected all follow this guiding principle.
Lucrezia Meier-Schatz, Chair of the Board of Trustees

Institutions are accountable

Financial support from the CSS Foundation also comes with obligations. Lucrezia-Meier Schatz provides more details: “We don’t take anything at face value when distributing the money. On the contrary, we keep a close eye on how the projects we’ve discussed are developing. To this end, we've drawn up performance agreements that are monitored by the Board of Trustees.” These are intended to ensure that, whenever possible, the projects are carried out in a way that delivers long-lasting benefits, even if the support provided by the CSS Foundation will run out after three years. One example of this long-term focus is the training of volunteers in paediatric palliative care, whose costs are being covered by the Foundation. The Chair of the Board of Trustees is delighted: “Once trained, these women and men will continue their volunteer service for a long time and thus be able to provide valuable assistance in relieving the strain on caregivers.” For all these organisations, the financial support came completely out of the blue. “It was very touching to realise how grateful they were. It showed us that our idea about how to disburse the donations was exactly the right decision,” Meier-Schatz states.

About Lucrezia Meier-Schatz

Lucrezia Meier-Schatz
Lucrezia Meier-Schatz – born in 1952 in Le Locle, Neuchâtel – studied at the University of Neuchâtel, where she also earned a Ph.D. in Political Science. From 1975, she headed the Political Studies section of the General Secretariat of the Christian Democratic People’s Party of Switzerland (CVP) for seven years. She also spent many years as head of the Pro Familia Schweiz association and as a member of the boards of directors of Swiss Post and of CSS Holding AG. From 1999 to 2015, she represented the canton of St. Gallen for the CVP as a member of the National Council, where she also sought to promote family policy. Lucrezia Meier-Schatz has been Chair of the Board of Trustees of the CSS Foundation since 2020.