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Episode 8: Dr. Katharina Kruppa and the story of the award winning Grow Together from Vienna Austria
225 Plays7 months ago
What happens when a baby is born into challenging circumstances? How can we ensure that every child, no matter where they start, has a fair chance to thrive?
In this episode, we introduce you to Grow Together, an inspiring initiative from Vienna, Austria, founded by Dr. Katharina Kruppa, winner of the SozialMarie Award in 2015. Grow Together is transforming the lives of families and children by addressing the critical first steps in child development, even in the face of adversity.
Join us as we explore how Grow Together turned initial challenges into lasting impact and the vital role of Social Impact Measurement in their journey. Listen in to discover how dedicated initiatives can create pathways for every child to reach their fullest potential.
This episode marks a special shift, as we’re introducing a shorter format and welcoming fresh voices to the podcast! Joining us this time is Beáta Babačová, our vibrant and energetic country coordinator from Slovakia.
We’d love to hear what you think about this updated format—your feedback means a lot to us!
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Transcript
Introduction to the YYY Podcast by Sociale Marie
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi everyone, this is Bea and the YYY podcast by Sociale Marie. Welcome to the eighth episode. Today you will meet Katarina Krupa, pediatrician, psychotherapist and founder of organization Grow Together. Together with Jose you will have a chance to learn not only about educational and therapeutic work of Grow Together, but also about Katarina's personal motivation. So sit back, relax and enjoy listening.
Motivation and Mission of Grow Together
00:00:34
Speaker
Hi, um I'm Katrina, Katrina Krupa. I'm from Vienna and I'm representing Grow Together, which I founded like about 12 years ago. Grow Together is an organization for mothers and children. And the reason I founded this is because I'm a medical doctor, a pediatrician.
00:00:55
Speaker
And I'm working in child protection, and I always thought that we have to do things much more in advance to really um take care for children. And that's basically the reason why I founded Grow Together. Katarina, could you tell me, why did you start this initiative? It seems to me to be a very big idea and a very big project, right? Yeah, it's it's a really big project. and um I probably didn't know when I started is how big it would become. um And it's great that it became so big because it's really a problem that many of us, which means many of us who work with children face, that whenever we see the children have problems, especially as medical doctors, we are basically too late.
00:01:50
Speaker
um when when i'm When I'm working as a medical doctor in child protection and I see a child who has bruises or is abused or anything, I'm basically too late because things already happened. And what we thought, like in a group of people was we have to be earlier, we have to try to prevent these things. And the question is, how can we prevent it?
00:02:16
Speaker
um And that's basically the reason why I found a group together, to be not too late.
Early Intervention Strategies
00:02:25
Speaker
We're working with with families and children, basically before the children are born, we're working with with pregnant mothers, so we try to really prevent what could happen to the children. And that's the reason why I founded it, because I just don't want to see the kids
00:02:46
Speaker
with bruises the kids in that we have to protect. Wow. So that means you identified that in order to solve the problem, you had to anticipate In which families could this problem happen? right So we try the signals. How do you find out oh who to help when probably though they don't even know that they need the help? Well, thing to think the basic thing is that what you experienced yourself
00:03:24
Speaker
you are very likely to do yourself again, even if you don't want it. So when you experienced abuse in your childhood, when you experienced basically not to be loved, it's really hard to love your kids. And it's really hard to, I mean, everybody knows how hard it is to to take care for children. And they're always situation where you just,
00:03:50
Speaker
come to your boundaries. But if you have within the idea or the picture how your parents did it or how for some reason other people helped you, you can overcome this. But if you never experienced that, you're very likely to do the same things that happened to you. So basically we work with parents who themselves were abused his children or had really bad, bad, bad experience who had trauma in their own childhood. And these are the parents with whom we work and they're really people who want to do it different and who know that they need help. That's basically the the idea.
00:04:42
Speaker
How do you find who are the persons that require your support? Or how do they know that they can reach you and ask for support?
00:04:55
Speaker
Well, that happens. That happens in the in the later days more often. But when we started or even also now, usually it's the youth youth agency or other people who say, well, there is a danger with this family. Because, you know, if if you have an enough experience, you know who the people are who might be in danger to to do bad things to their children. And we work very, um we work together with the youth agency. That might be for some or for most of the parents, of course, it's a problem because nobody wants to be together with the youth agency if you have a child. But then it's very interesting because for
00:05:42
Speaker
many families whom we work with is just normal when you have a
Building Trust with Families
00:05:47
Speaker
child. The youth agency is in the family because that's how they experienced it by themselves. um And now we're working for 10 years or 12 years already with families and it's, you know, it's also bubble. You know, you have bubbles everywhere and and also the families um we work with. And now many families know that what we do is really helpful. So they come by themselves, although they know that the usual Youth Agency is working with us, which is really great. And after, I mean, we are in the families for about o three years. And usually after a year, they really like to work with us. The first year is hard for them and for us.
00:06:33
Speaker
but then they see how helpful is it it is and what they really experience is what the most important thing for us is that we generally really respect those families. We know what, how hard their job is, how hard it is if you've never experienced love, to give love to your children and how much they try to do their best. I think that the major thing with Grow Together is the high respect we have for the families. That sounds so amazing to me. It's the heart of compassion. Yes, it's the heart of compassion and it's the heart of the joy of our work. It's just it's just great to work with people who have that strength through
00:07:26
Speaker
want to change their own biography for the sake of their children. I mean, that's basically that's, that's, that's what love is for. You know, you do whatever you can that you the people, you the kids you love have a better life than you do.
Societal Perceptions and Positive Reinforcement
00:07:43
Speaker
And when you're experienced, you really have to change and you need help that you really say, okay, then please help me. And then you have people who
00:07:55
Speaker
are there and respect you. That's how it can work. You just made me remember a phrase that is always stuck on my mind. That is, we become what we fight against. Yes, that's true. that But there's another saying that I really also like. We become to what we are seen, how we are seen. So that, you know, working with these families, I know how so Society looks at them and yeah they to be detested. They experience that everybody looks down at them and there are many fights in the streets and things like that. And the most important thing is to see
00:08:41
Speaker
the good things that are in them in these families and how they try because these good things then can kind of grow. So it's it's basically the most important thing and I was but always speak about social parenting. um We as a ah society are responsible for all the kids in our society.
00:09:05
Speaker
And being responsible for the kids, we have to respect the parents who do the best to work for the kids and also and help the parents and not look down on the parents who do the best. Because if if they experience to be respected, they become the people who can be respected in the long run. It takes a while.
00:09:29
Speaker
I can imagine that during the process of those programs that are supporting so many people, ah there are different moments when you can start measuring results.
Measuring Impact through Research
00:09:40
Speaker
And I'm curious about how can you measure the impact of your and your team's work.
00:09:48
Speaker
Well, you know, yeah when we're speaking about impact measurement, of course, you know, being a medical doctor, for me, it's important also to have, like, heart facts. And that's why we also always have, like, a scientific proof of what we're doing. So what we do is We test the result of of the children, how the children develop with the bonding structure of the children. um We test how the parents, not but basically it's not we who test, but we have like universities who who do the research on our on our program to really see if it works. So if the children are developed, as we hope that they are, if they are traumas,
00:10:33
Speaker
in the families and things like that. So the measurement of if it works and basically the the distracted, what it shows is that the children develop really well, which is the most important thing, but also that the parents develop and kind of change their biography. This is measured and that's great because um Since we work very, very intensively with the parents, it's not like our, um it's not my team who can say does it work or not because we are very into what we're doing. So we need some people from outside and the measurement is done from outside and it really does work.
00:11:22
Speaker
Thinking about the audience of this podcast, I would like to ask you what is the importance of social impact measurement? What is the effect that it has in your communication, on fundraising, et cetera? what can it What can you share with us? But before you begin, I'm sure that impact measurement can help you fundraising, right?
00:11:45
Speaker
Definitely. I mean, really definitely. We started this program with mostly fans sort from donors or ah people who gave us money and also um groups of people who giving us money. And they always asked for impact measurement. And at the beginning, I was like, well, people, hey, I have to do one work and I have It's a lot of work difficult for impact measurement. But then as soon as we started the impact measurement, we we also could go to the to the official donors and just say, hey, that's how it works. And now after 10 years, we are really totally funded by government because we can show the it how it works and that that it works. And for me, it's really great
00:12:40
Speaker
how How can I explain that? It's a kind of complicated thinking when you're like like me, when you're like working with the people and then somebody asks you, well, what how does this work on um to the society? And then I said, well, so how can I show that? And then I learned, of course, from years and years and years,
00:13:00
Speaker
how you can show that, how you can measure that. And we also got some people who helped us with that. We got the NPO Institute of in Vienna, and we got many people have also as sugar helping us with the impact measurement. And suddenly we saw how much input it has.
00:13:17
Speaker
And there's two things that helped with that. The one thing is, of course, it's much easier to get the money, if you can show, if you can prove that it makes sense, what you do. But the other thing is also working. Also, the team we're working is definitely like, oh, yes, really, what what we're doing, even when From time to time, I mean, it's hard work. And you have times when you say it doesn't make any sense because nothing moves. And then suddenly it does, but you have to go come over there. And if you have the scientific proof, it does have impact. There's much more energy in the work also by the team. That's so amazing.
00:13:57
Speaker
Yeah, that's really great. That's really great. And um it makes it easier because many people say, well, how is this possible? I mean, I can't believe it. And they say, well, I couldn't believe it either. But you know, here's the proof. We have this proof. Did you choose some specific standard or impact measurement methodology? Or did you make your own?
00:14:20
Speaker
Well, actually, we always work together with researchers. It's not our own methodology. And the researchers, they they were they knew like the the big ideas of impact measurement. And then, of course, we sat together and they they asked us for what we think would be the outcome and what would would be the impact on all this. And you know that the first idea is you have to or
00:14:48
Speaker
you know to just understand what is impact, what is outcome, what is output, all these words. And we had to learn this. But after that, we just sat together with the researchers, we we told them our ideas, they brought in their ideas. And then we just when done doing our work and they did the research, which I'm really thankful about because I think it's hard if you have to do that internally. Yeah, because I'm i'm also not objective. Of course not. It's my work. I hope that it has impact. So I need somebody from a but some external person who just looks at it and says, well, let's see if you're right. And of course, it's kind of whoa.
00:15:30
Speaker
What do they find out? But then if they find out that it works, it's just it it gives them a lot of lot of power. Focusing on you as an individual, I have a question to make. Why did you decide to persist?
00:15:47
Speaker
This is a tough work. And I guess that many times cross the mind of every social innovator, every social and ah entrepreneur.
00:15:59
Speaker
Should I quit? Should I stay? a Well, there's one
Katarina's Drive and Community Support
00:16:06
Speaker
thing I have to say. I never wanted to become a social entrepreneur. That's probably not very typical. I wanted to, I just,
00:16:16
Speaker
wanted to solve the problem. That was to and that that's probably was the thing that let me persist. And I always say, you know, working as a medical doctor and child protection, it's really frustrating, really frustrating. And many of my colleagues get a burnout working at that because we can't do anything. We just can't show and can't do anything. And um by becoming a social entrepreneur, um even though it was a lot of work, um I saw that it did change things. And that's, I mean, that's just the greatest thing you can do. That's the one thing. And the other thing is I never was alone. There are many, many, many, many people who helped
00:17:07
Speaker
I mean, I was not alone funding growth together. We were three of us. There was very quickly a team of six, seven people, really great specialists who were working with us. There was like a huge community supporting us from all different areas and where the families were working with.
00:17:31
Speaker
And I know the families and I know the kids and, you know, coming into the, you know, like the rooms of grow together. And there is a little kid kid running towards us. Hey, oh, Katarina, I know you. Hey, Katarina, I'm happy. I mean, what can, you know, what's that's the best thing, the best thing to do? So I would say being able to do things, seeing that it works, having a community, having people,
00:18:00
Speaker
to do it and knowing why you're doing the things. That's the point. I wanted to make you a question that is, why Grow Together is a success? And I've heard so many things already that is obvious. Why is this a successful initiative? But anyway, I would like to give you the opportunity to say something that maybe you didn't say before. um It's a question. what you the What is success? You know, when I was working, when I started with child protection, um one of my colleagues, I mean, and it's a long time ago, and she said, she told to me when at that one day when I was really frustrated and, you know, this doesn't work and that doesn't work and all that. And she said, you know, Katarina, if we prevent one child being abused,
00:18:59
Speaker
it's worth all the work we're doing. And when we when I'm like frustrated or kind of too much work and how can we do that, I always think of this, if it's only one child, then it makes sense. And the frustration is when things don't work. And of course, there are many times when things don't work, when there's not enough money, when The families don't do what what we think is good when you need more people to work with and all this. And then just go a step back and look at what already happened. And then it's possible to go go the further step. I don't know if that answered the question.
00:19:50
Speaker
I think your answer definitely addresses what success is, that basically I interpret as the satisfaction that you get from watching the results of your initiative. So what can be more successful than seeing every day the positives, the persons that you supported, the families,
00:20:15
Speaker
that have now a better chance to grow and to develop and to progress. That is just amazing. ah Yeah, that's true. And also, you know, the people who work with me, together with me, the team, I mean, it's already ah a really big team.
00:20:35
Speaker
They want to do what they want, what they do. And they're really great people. ah They see the success and it's really great great as a group to go together as a group. I think that's also some kind of um success. And then, you know, i um there's one other thing and it's probably part of the thing is also the storytelling. um It has to make sense. If people give if you money,
00:21:05
Speaker
And even the you know money from the government is also coming from people. Somebody has to society and people have to understand what you're doing. And I think it's it's it's important to be able to tell the stories and the stories must be true and you must believe it. it's It's something that it has to come from the heart. And I always love to work with children. That's why I'm a pediatrician. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing.
00:21:33
Speaker
And I think when I tell the story of Grow Together, people understand why I'm doing what I'm doing. And then they kind of understand why it's important to support this and be part of the community who can support people. So I think part of the game is the storytelling. I'm wondering if many young people wants to join your initiative.
00:22:01
Speaker
Of course. I mean, we have many, many young people who work with us for free. I mean, they're like, they're like interns, they, they like to do what they do, but they work, they work with us and they, and then they see how much sense it makes.
00:22:23
Speaker
I got the opportunity of meeting you when we both participated at the Ashoka Visionary Program. That was amazing. And just recently I found, um I learned that ah Grow Together got an award by Social Marie.
Awards and Validation for Grow Together
00:22:41
Speaker
And I wanted to ask you what is the impact of getting an a award like that? How did oh the award supported your initiative or what happened after?
00:22:53
Speaker
Oh, well, it's it's the point is the Sothselmarie award is is is one point is to really we were right at pretty much at the beginning when we got the award. Like I think grew together was like two or three years old. So it was it was not like we couldn't show a lot of things that we had done, but they came to the came to us. They looked at grown together very deeply.
00:23:21
Speaker
And they kind of understood what we were doing and then we we got that award for our ideas and what we were doing and it was like a trust in our work. And I remember when we when we got the award, one of the families came with came with us to this big award thing and they were so proud that they as a family, you know, the family and they came from a really hard background and they were sitting there and said, hu that's for us, you know, we get that. And I remember sitting there and getting this Soty Almery award. And I don't know if proud is the right thing. It's just think, I was very thankful for the trust. And then when there was, you know, there was dark hours in in our
00:24:17
Speaker
um like And then I thought, and then, you know, in the stackers, well, these people trusted in you and in this, in this ah company and then what in our work. So we have to go on. We have to do that. That's basically, I think that the thankfulness for the trust.
00:24:34
Speaker
And that they could, it's basically the same thing. What we do with the families, we see the best in them and try to, to go with them the way till, till this comes out. And the same feeling I had with the Suzanne Maria award, they saw the best in, in, in our work. And then I thought, well, we thought we, we have to do it. When they see it, it.
00:25:01
Speaker
many ventures and ah social entrepreneurs that I interview answer in a similar way. It looks to me that are especially at the beginning when the ventures are just beginning, the ah the founders and the teams are looking for some kind of validation and ah some kind of a catapult to move to the next level. And I think that awards that recognize and trust ah on the ventures and the results and the intentions of these social innovators are really an essential part of ecosystem, right, for social entrepreneurship.
00:25:44
Speaker
And and what what I experienced was that they really did a good job in trying to understand what we do. It's not like you you write a paper and then they read it and then there's there are three people or five people or ten people just stringing through it and then say okay this and this and this but they they came to our you know they came to our team meetings they looked at what we're doing they They asked a lot of questions that even helped us to think about our work. So it felt like, well, you know they they know why they trust in us. Dear Catharina, would you like to say something else, to share something, maybe a recommendation on anyone ah thinking to begin as a social entrepreneur, as a social innovator?
00:26:35
Speaker
Um, well, probably two things, two things. The one thing I always want to say is the thing I always said is this, you know, social parenting that we as a, as a society are like, we are all responsible for the kids and these respect the parents who did so much, so much, so much to do the best for their children.
00:27:03
Speaker
um look at the best in them and help them on an eye level. That's one but one thing and the other thing is it's so great if you have an idea that can change things even if that if the things seem to be little. One little thing might change so much and We never see the whole impact of what we are doing, but we but it it may it makes a difference all the difference, all the little steps we are doing. And I'm so glad to be you know to get to know Ashoka and all these people who want to do different things because it gives so much hope.
00:27:56
Speaker
Wow, this was amazing. I'm sure you learned a lot of interesting information. Katarina is a true inspiration. ah Her work and the organization Grow Together are worth following. Do you crave more inspirational stories? Would you like to gain insight into the world of social innovations? Follow us on social media and do not miss our next episode.