ANNUAL REPORT 2012-2013
A Word of a Director Almost completely unnoticed approached the anniversary of our organization. Next year, our Centre will be 10. Is it a lot or a little for an agency? I think, it is a little for an agency in general, and a lot for a social agency. It is time to sums up our achievements. So, what has been done in the year preceding our anniversary? Perhaps most importantly, we saw understanding of others and public trust towards a non-governmental agency. We, the "Florence Centre”, are no longer seen as a foreign element in the structure of our society and the state. For us, this is a huge victory! The anniversary of this year is the 5th birthday of "Kangaroo" program, that has grown from delivery of services at children’s homes to a small child-care. The children are loved in this place, and the staff members care for the children’s happiness and comfort in this world! The doors of schools, colleges, and technical schools opened to us. Universities of the city became our real friends and associates. It is so moving to see students participate in charitable and volunteer work! The society has a future! We had a pleasure to initiate and organize the International European Conference on Ageing. It was a new and important event. We consider as a blessing the calendar about the retirees for all ages. And we are also glad that family counselling dedicated to child nurturing is now starting to be attended not only by mothers, but also by whole families! I am overjoyed by the staff members’ attitude towards all people, who come to us for help. Respect, love, professionalism, humor, care and diligence of colleagues make the organization strong and reliable! Keep it up!
Director L.Romanenkova
"How can we get a job here?? You are doing so much, and you are still having fun! I did not even notice how the practice went by! Next year I will come back here again! "- These questions and comments we heard most frequently in the past year. Every year we try to help all students that come for practicum to discover a social worker within themselves, to develop interest to this needed profession. And we succeed in our attempts! This is evidenced by the fact that every other student, coming to our practicum, stays with us as a volunteer. This year, we not only maintained, but expanded cooperation with post-secondary educational institutions. Compared with the previous year, the number of practicum students increased from 25 to 40 people. Among them are 30 future social workers from the Economics and Law College of Zaporizhzhia National University, 6 social work students from Zaporizhzhia National University, 2 social workers from the same University, and 1 future physiotherapist, a student of Zaporizhzhia National Technical University. Providing practicum opportunities for students specializing in human services and development of future professionals is one of the main goals of our Centre. Therefore, we can say that this year we have completed this task 100%. We are pleased to accept students for practicum; and for us, every one of them is the person whom we appreciate and respect. During this year, we managed to accomplish a lot of useful things with our students: - Participated in developmental activities for children with special needs in the "Kangaroo" program; - Visited Kommunarskiy territorial Centre, organize a celebration on February 14th (Valentine's Day) for people with special needs, and provide other help; - Developed and delivered a set of lectures for the program "Healthy Generation." The lectures’ main focus is prevention of use of energy drinks and impact of youth subcultures. - Took part in sports activities organized for students of Kamyshevaha School for Social Rehabilitation (a youth detention centre); - Organized the event "World of Big Hearts - 4" and participated in it; - Developed and facilitated psycho-educational groups for teenagers aimed at team-building; - Translated educational materials for the Centre from English language; - Took part in training sessions; - Continued to create the directory of organizations working in the social area in the region. All this and more we were able to accomplish just by adding "extra hands” of practicum students. Looking back, we can assert the success of the program. It is in our future plans to maintain partnerships with all universities and former practicum students in favour of development of the profession. 
Counselling Interesting and even bizarre feature of this area of our work is that every time we want to stop it, there are new customers. We have even started to joke about it: "Let's close this or that project, and it will work better!" Strengthening co-operation with schools and partnerships with teachers on the program "Healthy Generation," has led to an increase in interest to other programs to our Centre as well. For example, in discussions held during parent-teacher conferences many families came to realize that they require help of professionals, in addition to support of friends and family. This is why they turned to us for help with various problems. We were particularly pleased with the fact that some families came for counselling together: mother, father, and a child. Thus, the main focus of this program this year was counselling on issues of parent-child relationships and professional burnout. The total of 11 counseling sessions was offered to clients of the Centre. We observed that the demand for counselling has been increasing. Thus, the next year we are planning to prepare handouts containing more detailed information about this program, including possible topics for individual and family counseling.
Training workshop "We call our group "Rays of kindness"- munching on a piece of cake cheerfully told us one of the trainees."It's great at your place! We just don’t want to leave!" That was our last session of the "Training Workshop" program. We put stickers with good-bye wishes on the backs of our youths (they can be taken off and read only at home) and off they go in real life with invaluable baggage of new knowledge and skills. To explore one’s inner world, to understand others, and to build constructive relationships are just some of the challenges that participants take on in this program. Children and youths of any age are welcome to attend, with prior agreement with the staff of our Centre. To start the program, we just need 5 to 10 students who also want to attend training sessions. Average length of training is 10 sessions, with the frequency of 1 to 2 times a week. Subjects of training sessions depend on the needs of participants. For example, we can offer workshops for trainers, workshops designed to increase communication skills competence, team building, etc. Here are the words of one of the youths at the final session this year: "I not only reached my personal goal [for the workshop], but got much more knowledge and skills, which will be very useful for me in the future! I didn’t even know how important the "I-statements" are in life! I will try to use them!" 
"And I thought that HIV is transmitted through mosquito bites and kisses" - confessed one of the grade 9 students, a participant of an HIV prevention workshop. "After this lecture, I will not be afraid of mosquitoes!" These are the unexpected myths among schoolchildren we had to dispel during workshops in the program "Healthy Generation". This program was one of the most successful this year. Active advertisement of lectures, presentations, and workshops designed for prevention of adverse events and promotion of healthy lifestyles brought results: teachers of different schools and classes turn for help to our Centre more and more often. Our staff members conducted a total of 64 sessions on 10 different topics this year. The topics for the offered workshops were further expanded. Most of them have been developed at the individual request of participating schools. Topics of lectures included the following: 1. Prevention of conflict 2. Prevention of violence 3. Prevention of "light alcohol beverages” consumption (i.e. beer) 4. Prevention of smoking 5. Prevention of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders 6. Prevention of HIV / AIDS 7. " I am a teenager " 8. Prevention of computer addiction 9. Prevention of energy drinks consumption 10. Youth subcultures Topics for workshops included the following: 1. " Me + Others” 2. Adolescent reproductive health 3. Professional self-determination The participating schools were particularly interested in workshops/lectures focused on team building and development of children’s communication skills. Twenty-four sessions dedicated to these topics were offered this year. Teachers recognize the importance of the psychological climate in the classroom, as it affects psychological health of children: "I want the kids to become friendlier, to learn to listen and to understand each other." It is encouraging that for many classes our workshops and lectures, in fact, became the foundation for healthy friendships. Additionally, a lot of work has been done by our staff in the direction of professional self-determination of students. Fifteen sessions dedicated to this topic were held this year. Sincere interest of 9th grade students to exploration of their possible future profession helped them to navigate successfully through complex issues of self-determination and to become aware of priorities in their lives. We believe that an important event in our work in this program was the grant we received towards a series of lectures on prevention of FASD. The lectures are planned to take place in local schools from September of 2013 to March of 2014. There will not be enough paper to write about all the successes, frustrations, joys, and satisfaction that we have experienced working with students of all ages. But the most important thing is our hope that for some of the children and youths the knowledge, skills, and techniques learned in the classroom will become priceless. And the hope for a reunion next year expressed by children makes our work truly meaningful.  "Volunteer, in my opinion, is the way from the interest to the meaning of the word to the choice of profession and life priorities" This was the way Nadezhda, one of the most active volunteers of our Centre, started her story. "Last year I decided to become a volunteer at the "Florence Centre”, because I was interested in working with children with special needs. I had some experience in this area. Over time, volunteering has grown from a hobby to my direction in life. I like to take part in the preparation and organization of the event "The World of Big Hearts." Through this event, I had a great opportunity to put the theoretical knowledge obtained in college into practice. While volunteering at the Centre, I met a nice person and a best friend in the unfamiliar to me, at that time, city. Volunteering has helped me see the world more realistically. After working with children with special needs and disadvantaged families with many children, the pink glassed fell of my eyes. During the time of volunteering I began to discover for myself more familiar and unfamiliar people. There were some challenges, of course. First of all, my internal fear. For example, in preparation for the integrative concert I had to meet with complete strangers and to establish contact with them. The question was: "What if nothing’s going to work?" If we talk about the future, of course, I plan to continue volunteering. Specifically, I want to conduct lectures for high-school students on the topic "Prevention of FASD." I also plan to participate in the organization of the event "The World of Big Hearts," because it has become a tradition after 2 years. I would like to wish everyone a whole-team-inspiration, personal initiative, endurance, patience, cheerfulness, and positivity!” We can say that our country has a future, because we have such volunteers. Each of about 70 volunteers, who came to our Centre this year, gave us a lot of new ideas, kindness, and warmth. The readiness and responsibility with which they carried out all orders and projects entrusted to them exceeded all expectations. And of course, all their efforts were rewarded with joyful eyes of children, grateful clients’ faces, and simple human "THANKS.” This year, all of our Centre’s programs operated 100% with volunteers’ efforts. Sports activities for children Kamyshevaha Rehabilitation School (a detention centre), organization of the integrative concert, development and implementation of lectures/workshops for students, administrative and informational assistance for the program "Kangaroo" - this is an incomplete list of all the projects where our volunteers offered all possible assistance. We are sincerely thankful all those volunteers who have been with us this year! We hope to see you soon! 
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