Project “Caring Families for 1000 Children”

Right now, amidst the war, when even more children need protection and support, a lot of effort is being put into training foster caregivers, adoptive parents, and foster parents. Hundreds of people are willing or have already been trained, but are still waiting for a child to be placed. This project is aimed at helping to solve urgent problems in the development of family-based forms of care for orphans and children deprived of parental care.

Objectives: Placement of 1000 children without parental care in families, mobilization and strengthening of actors in the development of family-based care for orphans and children deprived of parental care, analysis and development of recommendations to improve the functioning of this system.

Task 1. Identify 6,000 children in need of placement and families willing to take in a child, and assess their needs. Support for approximately 1500 children and families.

Task 2. Strengthen the capacity of the state, local governments and civil society to address the placement of children in family-based care.

Task 3. Mobilization and integration of key actors involved in the process of placing children in family-based care to increase efficiency and improve the quality of the results.

Geography: The territory of Ukraine, with priority given to Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovs’k, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zakarpattia, Chernivtsi, Kyiv regions and the city of Kyiv.

Implementation period : 12 months

Expected results:

• 1000 дітей-сиріт та дітей, позбавлених батьківського піклування влаштовані в сім’ї;
• an interagency group on the placement of orphans and children deprived of parental care and family-based forms of education was established, which will include representatives of the Ministry of Social Policy, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Reintegration, and the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights;

• engaged an expert group under the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine to address the challenges faced by case managers in handling complex cases, and developed draft regulations to improve the procedure for placing children in family-based care;

• the problems faced by employees of children’s services and social service centers in the process of creating family-based care and placement of children in them, as well as the work of interdisciplinary teams in the project regions;

• Specialists of children’s services in the priority regions of the project received basic knowledge on organizing work to protect children’s rights, granting them status and placement under martial law;
  
  
• 50 stories about 100 children (including foster children) in need of placement in family-based care and 20 stories about foster care experiences were written and published in the media and social networks;
  
  
• 270 social work specialists have improved their competence through group supervision, which will lead to improved social support for 7,500 families;
  
  
• 200 heads of territorial communities or their specialized deputies, heads of permanent deputy commissions, and deputies were involved in the process of creating family-based forms of upbringing and placement of children in them or restoring or preserving biological families for children. This will affect the fate of 2,000 children;
  
  
• an analytical report was prepared based on the results of studying problematic issues in court proceedings to ensure the right of a child to a family;
  
  
• 1000 families received assistance to create/improve housing conditions for 1000 children.
  

Expected impact:

• Strengthened capacity of the Ministry of Social Policy, local governments, children’s services, social service centers or community-based social service centers;
  
  
• public attention was drawn to the importance of placing children in family-based care and the activities of NGOs in this project were intensified;
  
  
• The needs of 6,000 children were assessed, of whom 1,000 were placed in family-based care;
  
  
• 270 employees of children’s services were trained, including on the quality preparation of documents that serve as evidence in cases involving the fate of children and compliance with procedures during their trial, which will increase the number of satisfied claims and reduce the time for establishing the status of 600 children;

• Proposals were developed to amend the current legislation to improve it and expand opportunities to provide effective and timely assistance to children based on feedback from local professionals and candidates for family-based care.

The project of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Ukraine “Caring Families for a Thousand Children” is implemented by the Ukrainian Child Rights Network in partnership with: CO “SOS Children’s Villages” Ukraine, NGO “Institute for Social Initiatives”, NGO “Center for Social Partnership “Perspective”, CO “Volunteers: Adults to Children”, NGO “Dnipro League of Social Workers”. It also works in close cooperation with the National Social Service, the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, and under the coordination of UNICEF Ukraine.