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Main » 2016 » September » 12 » ANNUAL REPORT 2015-2016
11:15
ANNUAL REPORT 2015-2016

Annual Report

2015 – 2016

Ukraine, Zaporizhzhya

 2016

 

 

A Word from the Director

Another Year (twelfth) successfully ended for all of us: for employees, our children, students, volunteers, sponsors and just friends of the "Florence Centre”! Each year, summing up, you ask yourself: "And everything was accomplished as intended?" "Are all the projects and programs working as hoped?" " What did not work and why?”  Many questions have already been answered positively, some questions still awaiting a response.

But the primary answer - the tasks, in general, have been met. Programs worked, and, most importantly, we have seen how customers reacted to the services that we provide. And our customers are, first of all, children of different ages. We have preschoolers and schoolchildren! And their smiles and laughter - our top gifts of this year! And there were many such gifts.

What marked this last 2015-2016 year?  First of all - a great amount of people and a variety of services. The variety of services includes socio-pedagogical and psychological assistance, the socialization and re-socialization of children and adolescents. Also, informative and preventive work. The main thing we see is - what we are doing is necessary for our children and adolescents to grow. Knowledge and skills which we teach them will help them not only to survive in a society, but also to feel full members of the community.

This year we started a new project - the development of the Center of Conflict Resolution in one of the city's schools.  " Florence Centre” also worked intensely with several vocational schools of the city. That's where our help is most needed; where the highest percentage of adolescents are at risk. We too, created a new Balint group for professionals working with HIV-infected people.

There was continuous improvement of technical equipment of the programs: playground equipment, a washing machine, air conditioners, furniture and other additions.

We are pleased that with the ongoing difficult political conditions within the country, that people are trying to be optimistic and support each other during these difficult times! Employees continue to be focused on increasing the professionalism, having a creative approach to their work and on the quality of services rendered. And, most importantly they love people! So, there is a future at the "Florence Centre"!


CEO     Lucy Romanenkova

 

 

The Program "Healthy Lifestyle"

During normal training sessions in the classroom, children participated in the exercise - "Crossing". The instructions have a prerequisite - to cross the entire team from point A to point B. During the lesson, the boys tried very hard, but they still could not manage to smuggle all team members. However, the task so fascinated the children; and, their eyes were so. excited, that even after a call they asked the coach: "Well, could we stay a little bit more ?!", "We want to try again!". The task had not been completed, and we needed to finish the session. But, when the coach arrived at the next meeting, he was immediately surrounded by a group of children who enthusiastically waved papers. "We did it!" "We could!" "We have calculated!" "We have fulfilled the task!" - cheerfully shouted teens.

To raise interest in dialogue, we establish a friendly interaction between children and give them important information for life - this is what is significant for us in working with pupils and high school students on the program "Healthy Generation".

This year, an important part of our work was the grant project "Stop HIV / AIDS"- Prevention of HIV / AIDS among teens at schools. In addition, in our city schools, we held more than 70 lectures and training sessions on various topics. Like last year, among them the most popular were training sessions "I + others" (communicative skills), lectures "Prevention of Violence", "Conflict Resolution", "I am a Teenager."

Experience has shown that parents and teachers are concerned not so much of the probability of smoking and drinking alcohol by children but have more concerns about their inability to agree with each other, to build friendships, and, in general, their increased aggressiveness. Many children are not ready to cooperate and need ongoing support and maintenance. Therefore, in some classes we support classes for several years.

In addition, we conduct sessions to improve the level of pedagogical competence of parents and teachers. In their responses, such classes have helped them better understand their children. Next year we plan to launch a new 3-year project "Territory of Health", which will help teens in following a healthy lifestyle.

 

 

 

The Project "Stop HIV / AIDS"

For nearly a year in vocational schools of the city there took place a project “Stop HIV/AIDS".  Employees of the Zaporizhzhya public organization "Florence" raised a very important issue for Ukraine - the topic of HIV / AIDS. According to the survey in schools, despite the fact that HIV / AIDS is the subject of many studies, the level of knowledge of adolescents in this matter is still quite low.

The goal of the project is to help teens to protect themselves from this terrible disease and to follow a safer behavior. The project was held in Zaporizhzhya from April 2015 to March 2016. During this time the classes were visited not only by students of vocational schools, but also by teachers, and university students. And, by the end of the project all vocational schools participating in the project received a manual on HIV prevention.

Classes were so exciting that students did not even notice how quickly they memorized important information on the topic. Each group attended two sessions. Fill in the form, see informative videos, play an interesting quiz with classmate - this is an incomplete list of what the guys have been accomplishing in time for the first meeting. A second lesson for all was participating in an exciting adventure, where students visited various stations and performed interesting tasks. At the end the winners invariably awaited valuable prizes.

Social pedagogues and psychologists working in vocational schools mentioned a genuine interest to the topic of the discussions; and, a high level of activity during sessions was noticed. The most challenging were the questions of HIV transmission. Thus, many young people do not know that HIV can be transmitted from a mother to a child. Usually during discussions, we heard the following remark: "I think that there is only one route of transmission - sexual," "We do not know what social service does an HIV test." In one of the schools after the sessions one boy exclaimed with relief: "I thought that mosquitoes also carry the HIV virus. Now I'm not afraid of them! " Leaders answered many questions, informing students about the real situation with HIV/AIDS in Ukraine. And by the end of training the guys understood quite well what is safe behavior.

Useful lessons were also for teachers. Teachers noted with surprise: "We thought that we all have knowledge in this area, but studies have shown a lot of gaps in knowledge! It was so interesting that we often do not even notice how quickly time passed by when we play with the children."

As a result of the project "Stop HIV / AIDS", ten vocational schools became participants. Classes were held in 50 groups - approximately 1250 people.

 

 

 

Volunteer

"A volunteer could be any person -  a child, a student, a member of a parliament!" This was a slogan of our program "Volunteer» this year. We could be proud that at our annual concert "World of Big Hearts» so many different people took part as volunteers!  At the concert the most cheerful volunteer was a Deputy of the regional council who was dressed as puppets. Despite his deputy status, he had so much fun playing with the kids! He has become an example for all the other volunteers!

The most valuable commodity in our organization is people! That is why we are glad to see every person who is willing to help, and it does not matter whether it is participation in the concert, walk with the kids or charitable assistance.

This year was no exception for good deeds - many people helped our Centre not only in word, but in deed. Each of the 70 volunteers who participated found something meaningful for themselves.

An important event this year was the participation of our volunteers, a leader of a program «We are just like you!" Bulatov Sergey won the Alexander Prize. He participated in the nomination «Goodwill Ambassador" and reached the final, finishing in the top three most worthy!

Thank you to all the volunteers for their invaluable contribution to the development of volunteerism in our city! Our doors are always open for you.

 

 

Counseling

"My child has computer addiction", "My child spends the whole day in Internet", "My son plays computer games all the time", "I do not know what to do with my child", "His only interest is a computer!" –with these words began many consultations this year.

A large number of parents of teenagers come to us with a high level of anxiety about the health of their children and hope that we would be able to help them. Failure to communicate, escape from obligations, rejecting to eat, passivity toward the world - this is an incomplete list of symptoms of computer addiction. According to experts, the problem of addiction has reached an epidemic size.

We tried to help our customers to identify the issue of addiction and to eliminate the causes of this phenomenon. We saw the need for us to provide more counseling sessions for people.

 

 

 

Training Workshop

This year brought a new and interesting experience for us - the partnership with the NGO "School of Volunteers # 612".

"School of Volunteers # 612" is a school which helps in an informal and easy way to teach people to participate in different volunteer activities, testing their abilities and providing the knowledge necessary for a productive volunteer work.

Creative and active guys from school invited us to hold a series of training sessions on "Management of Volunteer Groups" “. Participants of the training were the activists of our city, who are leaders of the local volunteer organizations and movements.  During the training, questions were raised and issues discussed troubling the participants: "How to organize and inspire volunteers?", "How to keep them in the organization?", "How to streamline work with volunteers?", etc.

According to the feedback of the staff of the School, these activities benefit all -  volunteers and those who work with them. We look forward to the next joint projects!

 

 

Students’ Practicum

One of the students came to us on practicum and professed she did not know what profession to choose. Enrolling on a specialty "social work", she doubted her choice: "I think I would still move on" to the Justice program ". "Social work" - it is not my profession. " After a week of her work at the Florence Centre she said with surprise, "I did not even think that social work could be so interesting! It turns out that I was just not aware about this work! I know nothing what social workers do! And to work with people is not as easy as I thought. Now I'm not sure that I want to move to another profession. You have opened up new horizons to me."

We are pleased that every year we see a growing number of students coming to us for a practicum.  Last year we hosted and trained 35 people, while this year the figure rose up to 59. Among them, 14 students from Zaporizhzhya National University (12 social workers and two psychologists) and 35 students from the College of Economics and Law (15 social pedagogues and 30 social workers).

By becoming part of our team, the students actively helped in our activities. They participated in out-door activities with children from "Kangaroo" program, help with a methodical work, participated in training sessions for high school students, work with the elderly people in a Mennonite family home, actively participated in the preparation and conducting of an integrative concert - "World Of Big Hearts". 

This is an incomplete list of things students accomplished during practicum. The goal of the practicum is to learn something and to help others. University students successfully performed all projects entrusted to them, day by day increasing their professional level.

For example, last year we attempted to pay attention not only to teaching students practical skills, but also paid attention to their personal growth. For this reason, we conducted training sessions on communicative competence for some groups. In the classroom they studied features of the character, revealing their potentials, their strengths and weaknesses, which would help in their personal development.

We have noted that the students' knowledge about the profession does not always correspond to reality, so we always do our best to qualitatively prepare them for future work, but the main thing is to teach them to love the work they do!

 

 

 

Training of Specialists of Social Sphere

 "Florence Centre" in the course of the year conducted training sessions for specialists of the social sphere at different levels. Thus, during the reporting period, we have conducted 10 lectures and workshops for the students of Zaporizhzhya National University and Zaporizhzhya National Technical University. We covered different topics related to social and psychological areas, and to the system of education. The students were very interested in the practical forms of work, and issues of the management of public organizations.

For the Institute of Postgraduate Education, we conducted four lectures on the communicative culture of the leaders, on conflict resolution, on parent-teacher relationship. Our students are the current social workers and school psychologists. For them it is very important to get practical information and learn new skills. Therefore, we tried very hard to make them aware of new developments and techniques for working with children. Especially interesting for them was working out all the exercises and techniques on themselves. Unfortunately, sometimes we figured out that the knowledge was not used later at school.

Two years in a row we lead the Balint’s group for the heads of social care services (for single senior citizens). In addition to the analysis of individual cases, we introduced new ways of working within this category. We presented a mini-lecture on death and dying; showed fun exercises for their clients; discussed what skills a leader is supposed to have; we taught them physical exercises for employees; did a training on trust, etc.

"For us your sessions are like a breath of fresh air", - was once told our experts after the meeting. It is gratifying that these classes perpetuate our colleagues to repeat with their employees. Such a group should exist permanently, because the level of stress in professionals working in this field is very high. Next year we hope they will have a self-help group.

This year we initiated and provided mediation by the Balint’s group of social workers by providing services to HIV-positive clients. We plan to gain a new Balint’s group of experts of social sphere.

 

 

Juvenile Justice Program «We are Just Like You! »

Over the years, the «Florence Centre» cooperates with Kamyshevahskoy school of social rehabilitation (detention centre). Our sporting events remain unchanged: football, volleyball, basketball, track and field athletics. As always, the football is the most favorite sport among teenagers. This year, a greater number of matches won by teens. Uni students need to catch up and do more! Thanks to football matches teenagers constantly train, trying to beat the students. New in our work were competition with bikes. To our surprise, all teenagers know how to bike and have shown good results in a competition.

It has become a good tradition to sit around the campfire and cook borsch. After eating borsch, we all sing songs - especially guys like the songs of the head of the program, Sergei Bulatov. Another activity that has become a tradition is cooking dumplings. Everyone prepare dumplings together: students and boys. When dumplings are ready then everybody is invited - staff too!

On New Year's Concert everybody participated!!! Students dance, sing, show humorous numbers (this year it was the mimes!). Our little friends have prepared songs, including English language. But most of all having a disco after the show.

In addition to the students of the Faculty of Tourism, other teenagers came -  students of Arts program. They recited poems, participated in parts of a drama, and performed their own musical compositions.

A new component of our visits are the introduction of mini-lectures and discussions with children about a healthy way of life. We talk about physical and mental health. Children actively participate in quizzes on health, discussed videos and stories about health.

Discussing the questions of good and evil, teens expressed their opinion: "If you do good to others, then you will be fine. And if you do bad to others they will do something bad in return. "

Not only children, but also the employees were involved in the project on a healthy lifestyle; taking part in the quiz. Teams actively answer questions to earn prizes.

"We also need such a class, not only our children! Spend more time with us we also need those knowledge! That was great!"

Working on this program, we see the joy of the children from our visits, their desire to be like students, to lead a healthy lifestyle. However, there are a number of difficulties associated with our work at the school.

The main problem is ongoing cooperation: school staff does little to change the program of resocialization of teenagers. There is seemingly no implementation of the forms of work which we have offered. There are very few changes in the nature of the relationship between teachers and children. Children come to the detention centre with a label of being a criminal; and the staff always remind them about this. No sporting activities that we offer are ongoing, although the resources for this are available. No trainings are required for future occupations in life; they continue to knit and embroider in free time!

Despite the current difficulties, we still plan to continue our cooperation, hoping for changes in the administration and school specialists towards improvement of teaching methods and education.

 

 

Social Actions

In September 2016, the Faculty of Social Pedagogy and Psychology of Zaporizhzhya National University organized and hosted a wonderful charity fair.

During the break the students got a unique opportunity to buy wonderful pastries, cooked by their classmates, as well as enjoy the enchanting performance of students of Art program.  All funds raised at the fair, were spent on purchasing warm blankets for the kid’s of the «Kangaroo program".

In March, "Florence" Centre was invited to participate in the exhibition "Innovative Educational Technology" at the Gymnasium # 99.

During the entire day our employees organized games among teachers and parents.  An unusual format was chosen - a quiz with prizes. In fact, our task was to promote interest toward new educational technologies. As a result, about 200 teachers, parents and children were informed about the forms of work on the prevention of a healthy lifestyle, as well as on the activities of the organization.

The Children's Day staff of the «Florence Centre" has become participants of a social events "Let Children Smile to a Sun and to Flowers!" The main purpose of the event was to attract public attention to the problems of the family, the prevention of child abandonment; to support, develop and nurture a sense of spirituality, national consciousness of families with children and young people; informing the public about the public and private organizations that provide social services to families, children and youth.

Working in the sector of "Fair of social services" our colleagues not only presented the work of the «Florence Centre", but also increased the cultural and educational level of the guests of the festival. All interested people are invited to participate in an interesting quiz on healthy lifestyle and get a sweet prize for the correct answer.

 

 

 

Integrative Concert «World of Big Hearts»

Hard to believe that it has been seven years in a row that Florence Centre conducted an integrative concert «World of Big Hearts». April 14th House of Culture Zalk opened its doors again to welcome more than 500 people. Big heart, full of love to the world, has everyone - an adult and a child, and all people who want a holiday and give everything, everything, everything to others...

The idea of ​​integrative activity has long been in the air. We wanted to do something bright, interesting and memorable for our city. And we also wanted to connect some activities of children with special needs and ordinary children. So the idea of ​​creating a holiday, in which, without any obstacles, everyone could participate became an idea of doing games before the concert and a concert. All kids could play and act on an equal footing. Savvy and talented are all!

Game room this year was a success! A lot of interesting plants, workshops, unusual tasks encouraging all the participants to be engaged. No one could sit in one place, kids could dance, sing, draw, do arm wrestling and much more. A sweet treat, as well as funny and bright prizes attracted everybody! So, in an hour before the concert everybody had time to take pictures with funny puppets, to draw a picture on the face, to become a model for the portrait, to make a chic hairstyle and to show all ones talents!

And, according to a tradition, after all the fun games kids were waiting for the concert. Touching songs, fiery dances, classical music and a fashion show - the audience in the hall simply had no time to get bored!

In between the parts of the concert good mood of all the guests was kept by the team of clowns together with our long-time friend Sergei Kulikovsky. He just ignited and blew up the hall with the positive drive of his personality. Contests, jokes, interactive games – herein participated just a few of the arsenal of active leaders.

After the concert, many parents left the performance with tears of gratitude on their eyes. And the students of schools and boarding schools, charged with cheerfulness and positive emotions all together sang the final song, "From my Heart." This year, Zaporizhzhya Regional Public Organization "Florence" again ignited the hearts of young Cossacks!

 

 

Participation in Seminars, Conferences

This year our staff took part in a seminar of the Ukrainian Independent Center for Political Studies "How to influence the local authorities?" The purpose of the event - raising awareness of the participants on the mechanisms of interaction between local government and community organizations.

Thw projected result would be the development of joint grant projects that combine the efforts of the city and public organizations in solving important social problems.

Also, our staff attended the meeting of representatives of non-governmental organizations involved in the protection of children's rights. The aim of the conference was to bring together the Association of non-governmental organizations to improve the quality of services provided.

This year again, a round table for public organizations of Zaporizhzhya region and foreign experts from Bosnia and Serbia took place. It was organized by the Mennonite Central Committee. The participants shared their experiences of working with temporarily displaced persons (IDPs). Experts from Bosnia shared their experience of work with clients of war injuries, which proved to be very useful for all those present.

In addition, we took part in a round table for future teachers. The event was held at the Faculty of Social Pedagogy and Psychology. Its purpose - to show the potential for cooperation with the future teachers with the school psychological service and to discuss ways of such interaction.

 "Florence Centre" again took an active part in the annual summit of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC).

The purpose of the summit is to familiarize with MCC partners, to do joint games and trainings on rallying the various organizations, the formation of relationships. After the meeting a number of competitions and quizzes we began to offer an example of their use in our work. It was also useful for us to get some information and ideas about the work of other organizations.

Together with the Faculty of Social Pedagogy and Psychology of Zaporizhzhya National University and with the support of the fund "A Child with Future" was organized and held a workshop about autism by Inna Sergienko. This workshop brought together not only teachers, social pedagogues, psychologists f parents as well. In total, about 170 professionals and parents attended the seminar.

 

 

The Program "School Mediation"

Since December 2015 we launched a new project - "Centre for Conflict Resolution" in one of the city's schools (school №5). Introductory presentations for the administration, teachers and school children were carried out before the start of the project by the employees of the “Florence Centre”. They presented the main ideas of mediation at school. The school staff became interested in the idea of ​​establishing such a centre. To train a group of mediators we conducted interviews and selected 11 boys and 9 girls from 9-10 grades. For the guys, mediation specialists from Poltava held training with a total duration of 32 hours.

The teens have chosen the name of the Centre ("Dovira"), developed flyers, presentations, booklets. And, for all grades they made a presentation about what would be presented by the Center for conflict resolution.

For the four senior classes we conducted training sessions on communication development - a fun and exciting experience in making a sandwich.  Next year we plan to recruit and train new mediators as part of this group who will leaving school.

The main direction of activity of the Centre for Mediation in school - the resolution of conflicts between the children, as well as the prevention of violence.

In our view, the work would be more active if there would be more support from the social and psychological school services. In this regard, the following year «Florence Centre" would be more involved in the process of training and mediation.

 

 

The Program "Kangaroo"

In 2015-2016 "Kangaroo" program continued to operate as a day care centre. The activities of the program were aimed at building of a harmonious environment of upbringing and educational of children with special needs, in order to provide their physical, social and psychological development. Throughout the year, the program was attended by 25 children. The children had the opportunity to participate in various forms of activities, such as: group classes (over 350 hours), individual lessons (500 hours), 10 outings and outdoor events, 10 celebrations with clowns (24 lessons), music therapy lessons (48 sessions), hippo therapy (12 lessons), swimming pool and sauna (31 sessions). In addition, the experts of the program carried out activities with parents: 13 seminars; 22 consultations; 3 parent’s meetings.

Over the years we have provided active assistance to students-volunteers - social pedagogues, psychologists and social workers. Volunteers help during walks, produced didactic material, involved in carrying out activities and excursions. It was a unique opportunity for students to develop their professional skills and to understand that in the future they want to work with children with special needs.

This year, the program staff has improved their professional level - participated in seminars, studies specializing in literature. In addition, we were fortunate to visit our German colleagues in Magdeburg, in the inclusive kindergarten, a specialized school, a regular school, a group day care, which is attended by children with special needs, a center of early intervention for kids with special needs and a summer camp for children attending these institutions. In turn, we presented our program "Kangaroo", and talked about all the activities we do here. This trip turned out to be incredibly useful, very productive, as we have had the opportunity to learn new forms of work with children which we now use in our work.

In May, we have had a grand event, which was attended not only by children but also by their parents. Together with parents we organized a picnic on the island of Khortytsya. The children and parents were waiting for a clown Fairy Pony with fun outdoor games, colorful toys, and fun competitions, as well as delicious food and plenty of good surprises. We are happy to have received an opportunity to spend time together as it helped to get to know each other better and unite parents and children and staff.

Throughout the year we organize various excursions - a boat trip on the Dnieper River, trips to the library named after Androsov, visited Children's Railway, a Zoo, an aquarium, an arboretum, visited the children's entertainment center, city playgrounds, Oak park, shopping centre "Auchan" shopping center, where children had the opportunity to participate in a master class on cooking biscuits and pizza. Such activities not only give positive emotions, but also is a great experience of socialization and interaction with each other and with strangers, helps to learn the rules of their behavior in public places, which they could later use in the adult life.

This year, we have participated in many activities. We have created information sheets about autism, and with the support of the deputies were able to replicate them. Specialists of the program organized seminars for parents. We talk about how to teach kids social skills, the process of the development of speech, self-development and self-actualization. One of the most successful innovations in our work was the sand therapy - a unique technique that allows one to know the inner world of the child -  has a powerful therapeutic, corrective and relaxing effect. In addition, this year we have been paying special attention to the physical training, both individually and in a group. We pay lots of attention to the physical development of children and in the coming year we have decided to carry out the program under the motto: "In healthy body a healthy mind".

During the year we have seen a dynamic in the development of each child. One of the most significant achievements was done by Kirill, who could hardly walk independently and now runs, jumps, and walks by himself. In addition, he has learned the experience of cooperation with children; and, can easily and successfully adapt to unfamiliar places when we visit places with a large number of children of different ages. Daniel, who had not spoken, now actively repeats words, pronounces a lot of new words, trying to build a phrase. Or Lera, who went through a long process of adaptation, now happily helps other children, took patronage over the kids - very active and inquisitive. Nestor, who now attends regular kindergarten, making his first successes in football and shows very good results. We are very pleased that parents gratefully acknowledge the positive changes in children that have taken place with the help of specialists from the «Kangaroo program”. Father of one of our children said that when he tells his friends about our program, others cannot believe that such a center exists in our city.

With much gratitude we want to note the improvement of the conditions of our program - not only a variety of instructional materials for sports equipment, but also a dishwasher, a refrigerator, a vacuum cleaner, a trampoline, a new road for cycling, lots of educational toys.

We are very pleased with the results of the work; are especially inspired by a trip to Germany, and the practical experience gained through the German colleagues. The visit helped us to apply the innovative techniques from highly developed countries, as well as to educate parents. We do really need continuous training to develop new ideas.

For better organization of group activities, we need to acquire special chairs, equipment for sand therapy, children's mattresses, wireless music speakers, teaching materials, special literature. Also in the plans for the next year, we would like to create a manual for parents of children with autism, share stories of professional experience, provide valuable guidance for the education of such children.

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