SOS Social Centres in Ukraine

In Ukraine there are currently three Social Centres for children and the local community, including those in Kiev and Brovary.  Many SOS Social Centres operate via Family Strengthening Programmes, which aim to support the wider community.  Below is some information about one of the Social Centres that SOS Children runs in Ukraine:

SOS Social Centres around Ukraine: In-Depth

Kiev

Description of SOS Social Centre/FSP:

SOS Children has been running a Family Strengthening Programme In Kiev since 2004.  The family strengthening programme offers access to essential services for children’s development (eg. educational, nutritional and health support, social skills) and supports families to protect and care for their children. The programme also aims at linking families with income generating activities and offers help to improve the parents’ parenting skills.

Work and Achievements: 

During 2009 the Project “Prevention of Social Abandonment” in Kiev has cooperated with 5 partner organizations from state and public structures located in 4 big districts of Kiev and 1 organization from Kiev region.

Also in 2009 we continue working with the Centre of Social Services Rendered to Families, Children and Young People in Podol District of Kiev on implementation of the project (225 clients), with charitable organization “Foundation for Assisting the Children with Oncologic Disease “Crab” (65 clients), with charitable organization  “Charitable Fund “Suziria” (60 clients).

In February 2009 bilateral agreement with international charitable organization “Vzgliad” on joint project implementation (75 clients) was made.

In the beginning of March project started cooperation with the Charitable Organization “Charitable Fund “Love in the Hearts”, in the beginning of April we started to work with International Charitable Fund “Cooperation of the Nations” and All-Ukrainian Association of Youthful Cooperation “Alternativa-V”.

In 2009 the following persons have worked in the project on a full day basis: Project Coordinator, Social Worker, Psychologist from January till April – full working day, in May - on a half a day basis and resigned from the 1st June. The other social worker was working on a half-a-day basis.

In order to provide psychological consultations in groups, 2 qualified psychologists have been engaged, trainer-psychologist has been engaged in order to carry out the trainings on Healthy Lifestyle, the teacher was engaged in order to work with the children of younger school age, the experts in the sphere of medicine, in the legal sphere and the experts of the service dealing with children issues have been engaged for conduction of Parents’ Club meetings.

Psychologist and Social Worker of the project attended the trainings “Art Therapy Space”, “Family Layout According to Hollinger”, “Psychological Assistance to the Victims of Violence”, arranged by Podol Centre of Social Services Rendered to Families, Children and Young People.

In April, Project Coordinator took part in the training organized for social workers by Professor Kevin Brown.

In order to develop qualification of the personnel, management of National Office has given an opportunity to the employees to take part in the following trainings:

- Dialectic Behaviourist Therapy for Adolescents

- Settlement of Conflicts in Work with the Crisis Families

In August 2009 National Office staff moved to another office so that, project have got more space for the activities. According to the service diversification, new kind of services for children and adults were organized. Such as: medical, legal services, services to maintain financial sustainability of families in crisis.

In cooperation, a German Embassy Computer Class for children and adults was opened in September 2009. New service for maintaining financial sustainability of families in crisis is provided now and based on this class functioning. These services are: computer courses for adults and  book-keepers courses for adults. The first graduators succeeded in employment and refused from project material support.

Brovary

Description of SOS Social Centre/FSP:

The SOS Social Centre operates a family-strengthening programme offering a package of services designed to ensure access to essential services for children's development (eg. educational, nutritional and health support, social skills) and support families to protect and care for their children. The programme also aims at linking families with income generating activities and offers help to improve the parents' parenting skills. An additional community support programme offers a range of services which aim at more child-oriented teaching by enhancing skills of teachers and educators.

Work and achievements:

In 2009, service diversification was implemented in FSP Brovary. Target groups of the project were reformulated. As the project works with families, which live in the different difficult life situations, the target groups of the project have been represented as 4 groups:

-                      Families where only one of the parents raises a child or 2 children – 54 families

-                      Families which have found themselves in the extreme circumstances – 94 families

-                      Families, where the children are brought up by the guardians, especially of old age – 10 families

-                      Families where one or two parents bring up three and/or more children – 18 families

According to the service diversification new kinds of services for children and adults were organized. These were educational (English tutor), psychological (individual consultations), medical, legal services and services to maintain financial sustainability of families in crisis.

During the year Project “Strong Family” continued its cooperation with Brovary Centre of Social Services Rendered to Families, Children and Young People. Partner relations have been established with the public organization of Brovary “Youthful Municipal Council” and the Centre of Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts “Pobeda”.  Throughout the year, “Strong Family” organized 11 public events.