One of the forms of PR  of our orgnization is the dissimination of the experience of the Florence Centre in scientific journals. The article below is one of the example of our writing  experience. It could be of some interest to the scholars and practitioners of the social sphere and public as well.

"Functioning of the "Florence Centre" as one of the examples of the Development of 

Human Services in Ukraine"

Disability in the Soviet Union

            The social obstacles posed by individuals with disabilities, behavioral problems, and specific illnesses were resolved exclusively by the Soviet Union (1922-1991) through the formation of a network of social institutions.  Emerging government policies tended towards institutionalization, which functioned to isolate people with mental and physical disabilities from the rest of society.  State injunctions served to effectively remove people with disabilities from the social sphere by barring them from public places, including educational and cultural institutions.

            While the state funded and provided care for some minority groups, including the poor and the disabled, it did not provide comprehensive eldercare.  Rather, the state provided residential care to senior citizens only if home-based care was not available. All other groups of disadvantaged members of the population were under full state control. For example, parents were indirectly compelled by the state to consign any children born with physical abnormalities to state care.  Citizens who chose not to give up their disabled children often found themselves in difficult circumstances due to inflexible state policies.  Since all members of the public were required to work, disabled children who required more care had no place to stay during working hours.  Relinquishing children with special needs into state custody was thus the only viable option for many parents.

            Instances of impairments such as hearing and vision loss were given special attention by the state. Students who graduated from schools designated for those with visual and hearing impairments received life-long disability benefits.  As well, the state assisted graduates in terms of employment opportunities.  Most often, however, work made available to disabled individuals was neither challenging nor fulfilling.  The work often involved repetitive activities in factory environments, such as the collection of ammunition for light bulbs and simple mending tasks.  In addition, employees were teamed up according to their disability and were entirely segregated from "abled” workers.                     

          The dissolution of the Soviet Union destroyed the social security system, and a lack of funding for social institutions led to the virtual collapse of the social services delivery system.  Today, boarding schools are in a very difficult financial situation.   The paucity of adequate funding has resulted in the departure of professional workers. Professionals such as a certified social workers and social pedagogues appeared only at the turn of the twentieth century (2,p.3).

          Social programs for disabled youth and the elderly simultaneously emerged and were financed locally. Parents with disabled children were offered new alternatives.  Rather than putting their children in boarding schools, they could place them under the care of social work agencies.  Such agencies are still available for those children and adults who are unable to live in society, either because they lack familial ties or due to severe disabilities.

            At present, boarding schools and social work agencies in the Ukraine are poorly managed and ineffective.  The large, often half-empty buildings which serve to house both intendants and children require a significant number of supportive staff.  As the situation now stands, the number of people employed in staff positions far exceeds the number of employed professionals who work directly with the children.  The sheer size of the buildings unnecessarily drains limited resources.  For instance, a staff of fifty to one hundred might be employed to work in a building that houses a mere twenty to thirty children.  Additional costs such as heating and outdoor maintenance further exhausts funds that could otherwise be spent on trained professionals

            While social work agencies are conveniently located, well maintained, and offer disabled children certain advantages, parents are still reluctant to place their children in these institutions.  Unless social work agencies gain relevance, their foreclosure is inevitable.  Despite the fact that the number of children with special needs is increasing, the agencies continue to lose relevance in the modern age.

            Factors that influence parents against sending disabled children to the agencies include the excessive bureaucratization of the social services sector.  In order to gain one’s child access to an agency, a parent must prepare an enormous amount of paperwork for admission, including documentation listing all of the child’s illnesses as well as his or her disability benefits. Parents are additionally often dissatisfied with the quality of services the agencies provide. For instance, children who lack self-care skills are not accepted. Additionally, the social workers/pedagogues who work with the children are often unmotivated due to the extremely low salaries offered (only slightly above minimum wage).

The Training of Social Pedagogues/Social Workers in Ukraine

            The first higher education social work programs appeared at the beginning of the 1990’s.  An essential component of the current program includes practical work; yet professional supervision in social services is still not adequate, since there are as of yet few specialists in the field of social work who have obtained professional degrees.

            Social services of all kinds arose almost simultaneously with the new university programs, which began to emerge approximately two decades ago. Social work agencies worked with the elderly population and with children with special needs. Many individuals who started to work as social workers at this time were former teachers, educators, engineers and other professionals.

            Homecare is provided by paraprofessionals who lack formal training. Low wages, coupled with the sheer number of patients the homecare workers are required to take care of (12-15 people/worker), has deterred many from pursuing careers in the field.  Individuals who obtain higher education instead often fill other niches. Only a small portion of the population pursues formal training as social pedagogues or social workers.

              Graduates from social work programs have difficulty securing relevant positions in Ukraine.  Consequently, graduates fill a wide range of occupations, spanning from insurance to politics.

The Inception of the Volunteer Movement in Zaporizhzhya

            The volunteer movement in Ukraine has deep roots, ranging from the ancient Slavs to the modern volunteer movement in the Soviet Union.  This paper will discuss only those points related to the development of volunteerism during and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

            Volunteering in the Soviet era can be understood as a ‘voluntary’ coercive movement.  Days of volunteer work called Subbotniks were set aside the state following the October Revolution.  Citizens were obliged on these days to engage in various public services such as trash pickup, outdoor and public amenities maintenance, and other tasks.  Since participation in Subbotniks was strictly obligatory, citizens’ engagement in such tasks did not particularly reflect a widespread commitment to effecting positive social change.  As a forced volunteer movement, Subbotnik survived no longer than the government which brought it into being.

   At present, Ukrainian society is developing a similar system of volunteer movement.  However, in contrast to the Soviet Union’s coercive approach, the Ukrainian government is taking a bottom-up approach.  Engagement in volunteer work is optional rather than mandatory, and most of the volunteers are students (particularly students of the human sciences, such as aspiring social pedagogues, social workers, and psychologists). The main motivation for students involved in the movement is to obtain professional knowledge and skills.  For instance, the students of the Department of Social Pedagogy and Psychology of Zaporizhzhya National University provided a number of services to patients at the Regional Cancer Centre during their health care system practicum.  Students provided socio-psychological informational services to patients, organized recreational activities, and purchased medicines and medical supplies through fund raising, organized concerts and consultations, carried out research, and distributed literature.  Faculty members also conducted grief, depression, and workplace stress counseling sessions. 

           After the end of their practicum, many students continued to engage in volunteer work.  The positive feedback students received from patients provided volunteers with a sense of satisfaction that functioned to motivate students to continue to give back to the community even after the completion of their programs.

  In 1997 a volunteer organization called "LINA" was formed by the students of the Department of Social Pedagogy and Psychology of Zaporizhzhya National University.  When the volunteer group started to work at the Zaporizhzhya Cancer Hospital without supervision, they came across some difficulties concerning their treating by the medical staff. Medical staff members often viewed the volunteers as unnecessary and unfit.  Occasionally, staff members would be suspicious of volunteers, which naturally did not help to improve volunteers’ interactions with hospital staff.  LINA lasted for three years and then dissolved.

  The next area of ​​volunteer activity that arose was the participation of students in training sessions for health personnel of a district psychiatric hospital in Molochansk (Zaporizhzhya Region), at the request of the hospital’s director.  The director wanted the volunteers to engage in non-medical forms of work so as to promote the humanization treatment process of patients in institutional settings. Student volunteers provided training sessions with nurses in order to help nurses to overcome verbal and nonverbal barriers in communication with patients. The training sessions had a positive impact on the formation and ultimate success of the volunteer team.

           Volunteer work was carried out over two years (2000-2002) and the medical staff quickly became accustomed to the presence of the volunteers. Nurses were documented to have enjoyed the training sessions.  In order to continue this work and due to the fact that the hospital was outside of the city (70 km), two nurses (participants of the training sessions) were obliged to obtain higher levels of education in social work areas.

            Students who participated in the training sessions (at various times, a total of seven students worked at the hospital) received invaluable professional experience. According to participants in the volunteer program, their work taught them to deal better with conflicts in the work place and improved their communication skills.  The university eventually ended its partnership with hospital due to the distance of the psychiatric clinic from the city.

Perspectives, Achievements, and Problems: The Inception of Family Centre "Florence”

           The success of the above-mentioned volunteer program contributed to the creation of the NGO Family Center "Florence" (2004). "Florence” had two goals: 1) assisting underprivileged citizens and 2) training students via practical activities within social organizations. Many students who practiced in the Family Center later became members of the center staff or a frequent volunteer.

            Florence Center employs specialists with multidisciplinary areas of interest.  Many members of the staff are broadly educated in psychology, social work and social pedagogy.  In other words, the centre has at its disposal an extensive knowledge base, which many other social work agencies in Zaporizhzhya lack. Many members of the staff teach at universities in the city, which allows students to easily engage in practicum work at the centre.

            Florence Center works with specialists from various countries, including Canada and Germany, and implements social projects within the organization and within the city of Zaporizhzhya and surrounding regions. The centre’s long history of cooperation with city administration in providing services for the community has helped to promote a positive image of the organization. The centre aspires to foster partnerships with city social work agencies.  However, the state is not currently prepared to even partially fund the center’s projects.  Consequently, Florence Center mainly relies on foreign sponsors, as well as on independently raised funds.

Florence Center has worked on 11 programs/projects in total.  These include:

1. "Kangaroo".

2. "We are just like you!"

3. "Healthy Generation".

4. The students' practicum.

5. "Volunteers ".

6. Students’ Cinema Club.

7. Training Workshops.

8. Organization of lectures of foreign experts.

9. Educational seminars for the practitioners of social services.

10. Individual counseling.

11. Preparing educational materials. 

The program and its projects were developed according to the needs and demands of society in order to find solutions to prevalent social problems.

Program "Kangaroo"

         Program "Kangaroo" functions as a joint German-Ukrainian program both at Florence Center and at the children's integrated complex Kinderförderverk (Magdeburg, Germany).  The objective of the program is to provide early socio-pedagogical support to families raising children with disabilities up to six years of age.

         The increased number of children with special needs born in Zaporizhzhya and the surrounding region, as well as the failure of social services to help families with disable children, led to the development of this program.  Thanks to "Kangaroo”, families can receive timely assistance in the early development and education of children with special needs. The main activities revolve around individual socio-pedagogical sessions with the children, both at their homes and at the center, as well as group work sessions with the children and with their parents (consultations, Parents’ Club).

            The group sessions – during which the children interact positively with their peers and develop basic interpersonal communicative skills – are particularly valued by parents. Group sessions are a novel experience for many children, since interacting with other children on a day-to-day basis can be challenging as a result of negative social attitudes towards the disabled.

               The following example is indicative of the effectiveness of Program "Kangaroo": Dmitri, a six-year-old boy living with organic brain damage was unable to communicate with other children or follow instructions prior to attending group sessions.  After two months of attendance, Dmitri began to manifest pronounced behavioral changes.  Through a specific method of instruction, Dmitri began to be able to follow instructions, communicate with other children, engage in music classes, and assist in simple tasks such as setting the dinner table.

            Many of the parents wish to see their children be fully integrated into society. Such high expectations often lead to disappointment.  The centre therefore plays and important function in helping parents to except their children’s limitations.  The agency is one of a few social structures which provide this service to parents with special-needs children.  Future plans for the program include the development of an integrative kindergarten, which would be available to children with and without special needs.

Project "We Are Just Like You!"

            Project "We Are Just Like You!" was developed thanks to the efforts of a group of Canadian colleagues, policemen, and experts in the field of law, following their visit to The School of Social Rehabilitation for Young Offenders.  The purpose of this project is the resocialization of pupils based on a methodological support system.

            The institution accepts males ranging from eleven to fourteen years of age who have committed up to twenty crimes.  The duration of each individual’s stay in the school is determined by the court.  The nature of the school is immersive, so that students both live and study at the school (2,13). Experts (pedagogues, psychologists, social workers) argue that resocialization can take place only through direct contact with society. If a young person is isolated from society, he or she can experience only primary levels of socialization (social rehabilitation), or that which occurs through interpersonal relations in small groups (pupils, the staff, parents, etc.).

         Social relations of the "second level" can be achieved by students of the school through their participation in psychological and social games, through the personal development of social skills, and via the pursuit of an active and healthy life style (1, 36). Guided by these principles, Florence Centre organizes educational, cultural, and leisure activities and events involving students of the school as well as faculty and volunteers.  The interaction between the pupils and volunteers has been judged to have improved the behavior of the pupils. Activity-based events such as sporting competitions allow the teens to socialize with other individuals of their age group in a fun and friendly environment. Sporting events also promote the pursuit of a healthy lifestyle.  Cultural activities such as concerts bring the teens into contact with youths from the various music and dance studios of Zaporizhzhye, which assists to broaden their aesthetic and cultural knowledge.

             Here are just a few remarks from them regarding the organization of their leisure activities: "Come to us more often, even every day!", "One thing to see the dancers on stage, another thing to see them so near! This was something unbelievable!" These inspirational comments motivate Florence Center to continue its work at the school.

              An important element of this project is the involvement of the school faculty.  The faculty assists in the development of key strategies used by the educational institution.  The problem with this work is that educators have ideas about the necessary changes that should be made to the philosophy of crimes and punishment.  However, they lack an awareness of their own role in this process.  For this reason, the school holds monthly faculty meetings in an attempt to find possible solutions to complex problems the school encounters throughout the rehabilitation process.

    Florence Center has organized activities in The School of Rehabilitation monthly for the last five years.  The goals of the Centre in this instance are to identify those activities which will most effectively resocialize the students of the school by promoting social inclusion. 

Project "Healthy Generation"

            The purpose of Project "Healthy Generation” is to promote productive lifestyles and healthy living to the general public.  This message is often carried out through training sessions on socialization, which generally target students attending secondary school.  The project was developed both as a result of the increasingly deviant behaviour documented among children and adolescents, as well as due to the shortage of available information concerning healthy lifestyles.

  Specialists from Florence Center have developed lectures aimed to prevent smoking, computer addiction, consumption of alcohol, and violence.  All lectures are accompanied by a Power Point presentation.  Each lecture is adapted according to the age and needs of its target audience.  The main aim of these lectures is to provide information in an interesting and persuasive manner.  The presentations incorporate experiments, games, and videos, all of which have been documented to increase the effectiveness of the lectures.  The employees of the Centre play an important role by preparing and supporting the lectures. For instance, between 2010-2011 and 2013-2014, the Center commenced the project "FASD", which involved the presentation of information on the prevention of alcohol use during pregnancy. The presentations were offered to pupils, teachers and parents. The project has covered 40% of schools (44 schools): over 5000 students, 400 teachers and more than 900 parents of Zaporizhzhya.  After every lecture, the Center received lively feedback from students.  During a lecture on prevention of alcohol consumption, students participated in a simple but interesting experiment: two cups holding raw egg protein (representing a living organism) were each filled with a separate liquid.  The first was filled with non-carbonated water, while the second was filled with ethyl alcohol.  The first cup did nothing, while in second cup the egg protein folded and thickened.  Following the experiment, the students were informed that the same reactions would occur in their bodies when they consumed alcohol.  The students offered comments such as: "It looks so disgusting!”, "I will remember this for a long time!”, and "Never go to drink!”

            Despite its success, difficulties regarding the Center’s involvement with schools have arisen due to the lack of interest schools have displayed in the program.  The program’s popularity has had less to do with its effectiveness than with the costs that are associated (as educational services are required). At the same time, however, the lectures offer the Center’s staff the opportunity to actively campaign for the promotion of the Center’s work while simultaneously helping specialists to improve the presentations.

          The goal of the Center is to establish closer partnerships with schools by identifying the needs of students and developing lectures that address those needs.  Also integral to the success of Florence Center’s programs is the recruitment and training of lecturers.  The use of new technologies in the lectures improves the effectiveness of the Center’s message concerning the importance of healthy lifestyles.

Student Practicums

            The Center hosts from fifteen to twenty students for their practicum annually, including aspiring social workers, social pedagogues, psychologists and physiotherapists.  During their time at the Centre, students are offered the opportunity to acquire new knowledge while working under the supervision of qualified professionals. Practicums at the Center include a variety of different projects, all of which take into account the practical needs of the agency and objectives of the educational process at the university level.  Students are also encouraged to choose the direction and type of activities they engage in according to their individual interests.

            Students often become part of the team during their practicum at Florence Center and come to participate in the work of the Center alongside normal faculty and staff members.  The Center encourages and values the ideas and thoughts of the students.  This gives students a sense of relevance and promotes a sense of responsibility within a workplace environment.  Throughout their practicum, students receive feedback about the quality of their work, not only from specialists but also from clients of the centre.  Students are encouraged to make independent decisions and to be creative. The practicum program make a significant contribution to the agency while helping to increase the number of services available to clients.

            Each year, students offer comments and suggestions regarding the Center and the organization of their practicum.  For example, in 2013, students fulfilling the practicum section of their social work program made the following comments: "‘I do not know any better place for practice, than at Florence Center.  I gained significant experience in specific areas of the field of social work’… Or ‘After this practicum, I realized that I would never work with children with special needs.  I am very sorry for them’… Or ‘I enjoyed being together with all the employees of the Centre. I want to work with them.’"

            In order to develop and improve students’ practicums at Florence Center, the Center must forge a closer partnership with surrounding universities. Florence Center must look for more effective ways to collaborate with universities in order to increase the number of students who choose to do their practicum at the Center.                 

Volunteers

           Florence Centre also encourages volunteers to participate in the different activities it offers.  The center’s staff determines the needs for each agency program and the numbers and requirements of potential volunteers, and then describes those needs to potential volunteers who would like to participate in the Center’s work. Volunteers are often students who have come for single-day practicums, or students from different programs have who heard about the work of the Center and want to give back to the community. Volunteers have the opportunity to gain experience, increase their knowledge in the social sphere, and engage in useful social activities.  Each year, the number of permanent and temporary volunteers increases.  The purpose of the volunteer program has both to do with increasing the number of services available to clients, as well as with the promotion of volunteerism in the interest of forming responsible, conscientious citizens.  Florence Center hopes to eventually inspire a volunteer movement in the city, which would function autonomously from the Center.                 

Training Workshops

            Project "Training Workshop" was created in 2010 in response to various requests made by students who wished to develop their own training abilities.  Specialists of the Center conduct training sessions in two directions: one for future trainers, and the other for those interested in achieving a fuller understanding of the inner self.

             The training sessions are open to the public. The number of people in each training group ranges from five to fifteen and the sessions are held at the Centre twice per week.  In spite of the broad interest shown in the sessions, in most cases only individuals who are professionally interested complete the full course. The aim of the project is to interest a greater variety of aspiring professionals, including social workers, psychologists, etc.

Lectures Conducted by Foreign Specialists

            Lectures conducted by foreign specialists contribute to the work done at Florence Center.  As a result of many years of close cooperation of the Center with a number of universities of Zaporizhzhya, the center is able to organize and offer lectures to different professional groups and students.  For fifteen years, students and professionals of the social sphere have had the opportunity to acquire new information and ideas about the principles of restorative justice, the ethical principles of social work, and the needs of seniors and children with disabilities and other limitations.

Literature

1. Analysis of Ukraine's state policy and activities of relevant institutions of welfare and social adaptation in juvenile prisons. - K, 2010. - 72 sec.

2. School of Social Rehabilitation: national and international practices: toolboxes / Avt.upor.: LM Nikonenko, L. Romanenkova, N. Mosol, IM Bilyaeva. - Weimar, 2011. - 69 sec.