Final Program Report: Community Services to Vulnerable Groups

In 2004, prior to the implementation of the Supporting Orphans and Vulnerable Children project, 11,821 Belarusian children were institutionalized in 179 state-administered orphanages and boarding schools. The project aimed to reduce the number of institutionalized children by supporting at-home family care and moving children out of institutions. The project had three main objectives: improve access to and further develop an integrated system of community-based prevention and services for families with institutionalized and at-risk children; improve the quality of training and education available to social service providers; and provide technical assistance to social service providers through policy development, methodology consultations, and advocacy efforts. The project achieved its goal of reducing the number of institutionalized children in state-administered orphanages and boarding schools. The project developed a multi-layered system of community-based prevention and rehabilitation services, delegating responsibility to local communities to ensure the sustainability of project results. Project communities developed experience and expertise in selecting community-based services that address the main risk factors of child abuse and neglect. In total, 16,783 children and 19,318 were meaningfully served by 718 new/improved community-based services in 168 geographic locations. The project exposed Belarusian child protection specialists, authorities, and decision-makers to the best international practices of child protection, including practical skills for coping with child abuse and neglect. The established cooperation with local departments for Education and higher/re-training institutions enabled project implementers to train child welfare workers on a large scale and form a solid cadre of professionals. Through 2010-2015 project years, annually about 5,000 child protection specialists were provided with step-down trainings on child protection by local trainers previously trained by the project. The project provided technical assistance to social service providers through policy development, methodology consultations, and advocacy efforts. Several ChildFund's Task Groups of local experts developed 10 unique documents that address the gaps in regulatory and methodology environment in child protection. These Standards and Guidelines explain and promote informed decision-making that guarantees consistent and effective placement decisions, collegial approach to decision-making, and standardized assessment free from subjective judgment. The project's activities focused on the sustainability of changes introduced within the course of project implementation. The approach to sustainability focused on increasing the number of communities that implement child protection system reforms and effective preventive and rehabilitation services for OVC families; capacity building for social service specialists; expanding training programs to universities, developing networking ties within university community; encouraging and supporting strategic partnerships between communities and re-training institutes; and strengthening the ability of re-training institutes and universities to independently deliver innovative training programs provided by ChildFund and train new cohorts of child protection specialists. By September 2015, almost all targeted oblasts achieved the sufficient number of the communities that started implementation of the de-institutionalization model. Minsk, Mogilev, Brest oblasts achieved their project target of 65%; Grodno oblast exceeded the target of 65% and reached 72% of the communities that started implementation of the de-institutionalization model.