Improving services for juveniles in conflict with the law and probationers, integrating them at both central and municipal levels remains a significant challenge in Georgia. To address this issue, a Working Group Meeting was organized on 22-23 February 2024 in Tbilisi, bringing together representatives from local self-governments and the National Agency for Crime Prevention and Probation.

The primary objective of the working group meeting was to facilitate the exchange of information on activities of joint interest and available programmes, collect unified data regarding these services with the goal of enhancing and expanding existing services for vulnerable groups. Additionally, the meeting sought to identify contact points, develop new additional services at both central and municipal levels, and establish a collaborative framework for future cooperation.

The meeting included representatives from 10 selected municipalities who participated in the Cascade Regional Trainings on Drugs and Psychoactive Substance Use Prevention organised by the Pompidou Group’s first field project in Georgia in 2023. In total, 40 participants attended the working meeting.

During the meeting, national experts provided a comprehensive overview of psychoactive substance use prevention, the essence of targeted prevention and the importance of delivering services at both central and local levels. Each municipality and probation specialist presented their respective services and programmes, field of activity, target groups and existing challenges. The second day of the meeting was dedicated to planning a joint prevention activity, where mixed groups from different institutions brainstormed on potential collaboration and co-operation methods, selected target groups and identified possibilities or barriers in the implementation process.

The training was conducted within the framework of the Pompidou Group component of the Council of Europe project "Support to Penitentiary System Reforms in Georgia".