Project - International Charity Partnership for Every Child
The main project idea is to encourage a group of active young people from institutional care to establish and sustain a social network (informal or youth-led non-governmental organisation) which will provide support to wider group of young people in the local community in advocating for and accessing their social rights at the local level.
The primary beneficiaries of the project are young people aged 15-18 years who are brought up in child-care institutions, and young people aged 18-23 years, who left institution care and are settling up their independent life (12-15 persons).
Secondary beneficiaries are young people with the same status as primary beneficiaries living in the city of Bila Tserkva and social work professionals and representatives of local authorities who deal with care-leavers’ issue.
Way to success together: project progress
Kyiv, Ukraine
The initial project idea was to encourage group of active young people with care experience to establish and sustain social network which could provide support to wider group of young people in the local community in advocating for social rights at the local level.
During the following period the idea and way of implementation was modified, but still the idea of establishing of group of youth activists is still priority for organization, which is planned to be continued in future projects. During June-August I had preparation period, during which the project idea modified into empowering young people from 4 pilot sites of Kyiv oblast for better implementation of their human rights and promote youth engagement and volunteerism among disadvantaged youth. Enter-project goes within the strategy of my organization, Partnership for Every Child, referring youth participation and within its core-project “Sure Start: Care Leavers Integration Programme“ referring assisting young people in becoming independent during transition period after leaving institutions.
Prior to the project start project coordinator from key pilot site Bila Tserkva, Yuliia, participated in study session “Coaching for Inclusion” which was held at the end of May in Strasbourg youth center. The participation was of great use for following project implementation. She conducted a series of workshops for vulnerable youth on themes of social inclusion and social rights. Also she achieved good results in individual support of young people for obtaining social rights (one of the successful stories is attached).
As a part of the project presentation for local partners was conducted in September in Kyiv. Representatives from Bila Tserkva city, Ivankiv, Tarashcha and Vyshgorod rayons (district) were invited to participate. Since project should be implemented in close cooperation with local professionals it was important to motivate them and clarify the concept of social rights.
It was agreed that project coordinators in pilot sites would introduce the idea of social rights and way of obtaining them in local realities for groups of young people deprived of parental care. Further on they empowered young people to be active in obtaining social rights in everyday life during weekly life-skills training sessions.
Next project presentation was held for young people aged 15-18 years from pilot 4 sites (25 young people who are in alternative care). Participants were introduced basic project ideas and approaches. Also they were encouraged to refer to project coordinators (who were present as well) for assistance in difficult situations. By the end of meeting we created symbolical network of support.
Later on 4 young people were selected (2 of them with alternative care-experience, 2 active volunteers) were selected and empowered to serve as peer-to-peers trainers. They were invited to participate in international youth practice exchange in Switzerland to improve facilitation and presentation skills. By the end of November 2 of them, Oleg and Ksusha were facilitating meeting of young people aged 18-23 years (25 young people with alternative care experience)
The aim of meeting was to present Enter-project and empower youth to be active. It was difficult not to agree with young people claiming that social rights are very important although they are not always respected. But facilitators emphasized that rather than being upset or angry that these rights are not always practiced, young people should use their knowledge of rights in a positive way. They can teach others about their rights and help think of ways to make the rights possible.
That’s why we invited 2 successful care-leavers who shared own positive experience of defending own rights. Finally participants analyzed own resources and competences and planned how they could be used for aching positive results in different spheres. Participants’ feedback was inspiring for youth facilitators and me personally.
Following this event we planned to invite 8-10 most active and motivated young people to participate in the training within European conference of International Foster Care Organization (IFCO), which would take place in Kyiv in May. We had preliminary agreement with Enter-colleague from Belarus, Anna Gorskaia, that few active participants of her project who also had alternative care experience would take part in the training.
Also active youth with alternative care experience from Georgia, Moldova, Netherlands, Switzerland and United Kingdom was invited for 5-day
But because of long term protests over Ukraine which took place in December 2013 – February 2014 Kyiv as venue city for IFCO conference was changed for Ireland and the youth training was shifted for July.
Meanwhile local project coordinators continue supporting young people in obtaining social rights...
Successful story
Olesia is one of the project’s public faces – she is active, clever and cute. Now she is interested to participate in different events, including meetings at high level. But just a year ago she was shy, self-contained and non-communicative girl.
Olesia was born by single mother, who couldn’t properly take care of her. In 6 years she was placed to child-care institution. Since that time her mother lost any contact with the child and hided from child care services in order not to pay alimony.
In May 2013 Olesia decided to enter medical college in Bila Tserkva and become accoucheur. But director of institution insisted that she would become typical secretary as many other care-leavers usually did. Olesia asked Yuliia, local project coordinator for support. Yuliia clarified to Olesia that she had complete right to enter whenever she wants and no one had right to press her. Still Olesia was afraid to keep on her choice, but Yuliia continued supporting and encouraging her. Finally Olesia became enough confident to talk with director and explain her plans. As a result Olesia entered college she wished and became more self-confident and assertive.
Additionally, Olesia after leaving institution had to leave independently in her apartment, which was in very bad condition (her flat inherited from mother was not looked after during more than 10 years). Olesia couldn’t receive temporary social housing for study period as she is originally from Bila Tserkva and has housing according to official register. To solve the problem Yuliia prepared official requests and held meetings with respective people to explain the situation.
When the problem was settled, Yuliia and Olesia started planning together renovation of the flat. Project coordinator created opportunities for young person to participate and express her vision of this long-term process, shared responsibility and delegated her some aspects of renovation. Just to compare: usually social workers do a lot of stuff by themselves to make renovation quicker but ignoring young people’s interests and loosing opportunities for personal development.
Currently Olesia is successfully finishing first year of studding, continues renovation of flat and is active project participant, motivation and encouraging other vulnerable young people to be active in obtaining their social rights.