Reflections, Florence Centre - Ten Years of Operation

Florence/Otto Driedger
October 2015

 Ten years of operation - what a great achievement by you  - as the people that made it happen, and the community  which nurtured your development.

 We remember well when we first came to Ukraine in the  early 1990s.  We were invited to assist in development of  graduate level social work/human justice education in  Odessa by Dr. Boris Khersonski. After several years of  going to Odessa, we were invited to come to the National  University in Zaporizhzhya by Dr. Lyudmila Romanenkova  who had been asked to develop social work/social  pedagogy at the University.  We were asked to assist in  developing the curriculum with Lucy and teaching the  courses in the curriculum that were new to Universities in  Ukraine as part of the former Soviet Union.

 The first time we came to Zap was in the Fall of 1995.    Arrangements had been made for us to stay at a U.  residence.  Our pattern has been to stay with colleagues/friends if possible.  It provides for more involvement, understanding of the situation in the community we are in, and developing a collaborative approach to education.  As a result, Lucy accepted us into her home and we have stayed at her place every time we have come to Zap since.  Thank you very much Lucy, for the comfortable and welcoming atmosphere you have provided through the years.

We thoroughly enjoyed coming every year to collaborate in curriculum development and teaching in the early years.  Our teaching process was different than the traditional approach to teaching in Soviet times.  The response by students in discussion of issues and working together on learning was great.  We also needed to learn a lot about the societal context in Zap and Ukraine in order to make our teaching as relevant as possible.  We were helped a lot by Lucy, her colleagues and by the students.

Practicum expectations in a professional social work/social paedagogy education was a challenge for Lucy and the University.  We joined Lucy in visiting a number of agencies to explore possibilities.  One location we visited was the psychiatric hospital in Molochansk.  Dr. Reshetnyak was the director who had developed many innovative initiatives.  We were impressed with the work and spirit under the very difficult conditions that existed in the mid nineties.  Another agency we visited was the cancer hospital.  The clinical director was Dr. Shevchenko.  He had a creative approach to cancer services and open to new initiatives but had limited opportunities to develop services. Plans were made with him and Lucy to develop a conference on Cancer services with experts from the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency to come to Zap.  This included two oncologists, a nurse, social worker, administrator, chaplain and community worker.  About 200 cancer professionals  attended the conference. One interesting question was, what would be the role of a chaplain in a country like Ukraine where over 50% of the population are atheists.  The reply was that everyone had a spirituality and the chaplain would connect with the individual in the context of his/her spirituality and humanity.

.  In addition, arrangements were made for the clinical director to visit cancer services in Saskatchewan, and later the new administrator of the hospital.  Some years later we were impressed with the progress in cancer services at the hospital.  Primarily because of the work of the new administrator, the clinical director, the input by social work through Lucy, with a small contribution by our Saskatchewan group.

Other exchanges occurred in policing, restorative justice, social services and post secondary education.  The Dean of the Faculty of Social Paedagogy Social Work and Psychology was invited to Regina one year and later the Rector of the University, Dr. Tolok was also invited.  He came for 10 days with Dr. Lucy Romanenkova as colleague and interpreter.  It was his visit, especially at the Family Service Agency in Regina that he commented to Lucy that a Centre should be developed in Zap.  This had been contemplated for some time by Lucy, Florence and Otto.  The idea was that the focus of the Centre should be community education and family service.  The majority of professionals in the human services during the Soviet period were administrators with little professional education in providing human services.  It was seen as an important need that could be responded to through community education of professionals in existing agencies.  Saskatchewan had found itself in a somewhat similar situation 5 decades earlier where many service providers were not professional and when Social Work education, and later Human Justice education was introduced, a program of adult education was developed to professionalize existing personnel.   Family services were also a gap, so the Florence Centre was established. 

Some time later German interest in developing services for children with handicaps in Zap.  The Florence Centre was selected as the agency with the best potential to develop professional services in this area of human services. 

Opportunities in other areas also opened as a result of the developmental approach by the Florence Centre.  This included development of a service with the youth detention centre.  The work with school teachers, pupils and students and parents was another major area of development. 

We were always amazed at the positive openness and amount of work the limited staff and funds were used to maximize services. 

We are richly blessed by the great friends, professional colleagues and acquaintances we have in Ukraine.  We are humbled by the opportunity we have of making a small contribution to the well being of people in Ukraine and involvement we have had in developing human services.  The substantive involvement in Odessa, Zaporizhzhya, Kiev and Kherson, and the lesser involvement in places like Lvov and Donensk and Molochansk has enriched our journey of life immensely.

It is time for another change.  Time flies and we cannot (fly or do anything about time passing).  Planning for the future without as much active involvement by us is currently on the agenda. We do not see ourselves withdrawing entirely from involvement and hope to continue as age and infirmity allow.  Our prayers for you in the Florence Centre, for your community and country will continue as will our advocacy and consultation.

We wish you God's richest blessing in continuing with you effective professional service in your Centre and your community.