The Konvalia Project

The charitable foundation “Bethany Social Services” was launched in 1998 by graduates of the National University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”. It mainly contributes towards establishing and promoting the best interests of children and families in crisis in Ukraine through education and advocacy of the target group rights.

 

At the very start of its existence the “Bethany Social Services” provided social services to the children that were brought up in the orphanages in order to improve their lives. Later on, based on the gained experience and clients’ needs the foundation began working with families and children in crisis situations defending and advocating their rights. Additionally the foundation collaborates with the government and multilateral institutions ensuring better legal framework for the social services in the country and higher level of social workers professionalism.

 

Today the Bethany Social Services is one of the leading organizations on the market of the social services providers in Ukraine which keeps working on the social work professionalization  and children’s rights protection all around the country.  Organization is staffed by professionals with expertise in child, family, education and advocacy.

 

Implemented and current programs; their impact on the target group

 

For over 16 years, the Bethany Social Services has helped thousands of children and families in crises through individual case work, advocacy services, improving parental skills, providing assistance in employment and others.

 

Since 2001 till today Bethany Social Services has been implementing the “Family Preservation Program”. The program aims to help children from the social vulnerable families to stay and be brought up in their biological families. The Bethany employees offer expertise in all areas of family protection and conflict solution in order to prevent children getting into the orphanage and defend their rights in the court.  Such services for families include: family assessment; development of individual plan for overcoming a crisis situation; provide psychological, financial and legal support, based on the family demands (advocate for children rights, improve childcare, secure guaranteed state payments and benefits, develop housekeeping and budget planning skills, overcome personal and family problems  and other)

 

 Some program achievements so far:

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• Developed and probated the model of the social agency work with families in crises. 650 families and 1300 children received support in overcoming a crisis situation and children stayed at home.

• The Bethany Social Services employees transferred their practical experience to over 200 local and national organizations and around 2000 social sphere workers all over Ukraine.

 

During 2003-2005 the Bethany Social Services implemented a number of advocacy programs aimed to improve the legal environment, renovate social area and social services, launch innovations in social services management and implementation. The Bethany Social Services staff has been actively engaged into development of different state programs and legal acts related to the social services provision, family and children rights protection both on local and national levels.

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As the result of some advocacy efforts the Bethany Social Services team initiated and developed the regional Program on Family Preservation and Family-Based Care in Vinnytsa region.  Working together with the responsible government officials and other non-governmental social agencies the Program was adopted at the oblast (regional) level after public hearings and later on successfully implemented on the local level. In 2012 on the request of the German-Ukrainian Partnership Initiative to Fight HIV/AIDS, Bethany experts coordinated the development of Action Plan for the Network of Primary HIV/AIDS Prevention in Chernivtsi Region. The final Action Plan became a ‘guide’ to preventive measures for Chernivtsi region population. On the request of the All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS experts of Bethany Social Services worked out service packages implemented by local HIV/AIDS organizations in 8 regions of Ukraine. The services packaged included the following directions: individual and collective advocacy, homecare and inpatient care, and children’s day center. 

 

On the national level Bethany’s professionals invested their knowledge and practical experience into development of national regulations and legislative acts on advocacy services, crisis intervention and social support. Particularly, the Bethany team actively participated in the revision of the State Social Services List and Action Plan as part of the government social services reform strategy for 2013-2016.

 

On the request of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy the Bethany developed the State Standard of Quality Social Rehabilitation Services for Orphanage Graduates and Children Denied of Parental Care;  the State Standard of Social Services for Children and Families in Crisis Situations; the State Standard of Social Services for Children who Witnessed Domestic Violence;  attachment to the State Standard of  Social services for Children and Families in Crisis Situations; of State Standard of Social Services Provided at Mother & Baby Centers. Currently most of the Standards are in the process of approbation in Ukraine and considered to be the ground for the creation of the State Social Services List.

 

All above mentioned advocacy activities of the Bethany Social Services have  had  a great impact on the promotion of the social services reforms necessary in Ukraine, development of the regional social sphere and fostering innovations, active engagement of non-governmental sector in the social policy making processes.

 

Working with ‘The Konvalia Project’, Bethany Social Services was instrumental in developing the project ‘The Prevention of Domestic Violence’.  Aiding individuals that are victims of domestic violence and training social workers to provide counseling to victims and connecting them to much needed resources.  Social workers were trained in Brief Solution Focussed Therapy to work with individuals and families in all the projects that they were involved in.  We also work together on the development of much needed programs for Internally Displaced People (IDPs) – including training and supervision of social service providers, identifying needs of individuals through a case management program.

 

The Bethany Social Services has a strong believe that the issue of professionalism in the social area in Ukraine is extremely important and social service providers are the biggest resource for effective social work implementation. Keeping this in mind, the Bethany Social designs and delivers a variety of educational activities for the social sphere actors through documenting processes, experience and expertise for others to be able to replicate the existent successful  and innovative practices. The foundation offers a number of educational courses to the social workers, social pedagogues and psychologists, non-governmental organization providing social services, judges and social sphere volunteers. In cooperation with the leading scholars the Bethany has been numerously involved into development of additional courses for educational institutions preparing social workers. These are designed to raise the knowledge, practical experience and improve the quality of the social services support for prompt and effective action. They range from high-level advocacy, targeted social providers, joint work with local and national government, collaboration and coordination with other social oriented NGOs.  Between 2003- 2013 over 2000 specialists, on whose professional level depends children and families lives, took part in different educational programs proposed by the Bethany Social Services.