Project: "Modernization of the social support system in Ukraine"

Project period: May 24, 2019 - December 31, 2019.

Project location: Chernihiv region.

The aim of the project is to improve the performance of social assistance and social services in Ukraine for low-income families.

Target group of the project: Pupils and boarding school workers, social service workers, state and non-governmental, municipal organizations, families with children in hard life conditions.

In the framework of the project "Modernization of the social support system in Ukraine", measures are being implemented to promote family forms of parenting for orphans and children deprived of parental care and to prevent social orphanhood (reforming children's orphanages) in pilot regions of Ukraine, namely Kyiv, Odessa, Chernihiv regions and Kyiv.

The residential institutions transformation process involves a comprehensive approach that includes:

- identifying orphanages with the worst quality of children life, developing and approving regional or local government plans to increase the volume of family-based care services (reforming boarding schools) and formulate plans for the specific boarding schools transformation with the gradual removal of their children (returning to biological families or arranging for family forms of education);

- setting up on the basis of reforming boarding schools centers for the provision of social services or forms of raising children in conditions as close as possible to family ones (taking into account the needs of the community);

- developing a community-based model of social services, with a particular focus on early identification services for families in difficult circumstances to address family problems in a timely manner to prevent children from entering residential care.

Within the framework of the project activities, it is envisaged to ensure the development of information and communication technologies in the field of social protection of the population, construction of a new model of providing social support to the population, reforming the institution of social inspector, removing families from poverty and stimulating them to economic independence, reforming children's boarding schools, enhancing the role of the community in meeting social needs, etc.

LHSI has also joined this project and serves as a sub-grantee and participates in three areas: analysis of the needs of orphans, children deprived of parental education, children with disabilities, families with children in difficult life situations circumstances in social services; development and implementation of a mechanism of funds released after the reform of residential institutions for the development of community-based social services or forms of upbringing of children with conditions as close to family as possible; consulting support to the introduction of mechanisms for interaction between all bodies and organizations working in the field of children's rights protection and the provision of social services to children and families with children in difficult circumstances, including in united territorial communities.