Intervention Logic

The proposed action targets both the IDPs and the host communities as final beneficiaries with the ultimate long-term goal of full integration of those IDPs who would have elected to stay for good in Berdyansk with the local communities, so that they inclusively enjoy socioeconomic rights and opportunities, jointly contribute to the local development and have no social and economic barriers dividing them. Towards this goal, the proposed action has the following hierarchy of objectives.

Overall Objective 1: Effective solutions that address shortcomings in essential community infrastructure and in provision of gender-sensitive public services caused by arrival of large groups of IDPs

The long-persisting deficiencies in local infrastructure and social service capacity in Berdyansk were aggravated by a massive incoming displacement of people. Families of IDPs need to receive a range of social services guaranteed by the national legislation, such as receiving information on available social services, registering for social benefits and assistance, placing children in kindergartens, care for disabled children and older persons, socio-psychological support and rehabilitation, counselling. There is also the need to ensure that these services respect gender equality and are free from gender-based discrimination. Unfortunately, the existing communal infrastructure of the city and the municipal system of social care are unable to respond to these challenges effectively for a number of reasons ranging from lacking openings at city kindergartens to territorial dispersion of social service facilities to knowledge and skills gaps of service providers. The proposed action will address these shortcomings by increasing the social service capacity in the municipality of Berdyansk. To this effect, the following specific objectives will be pursued.

Specific Objective 1: Improved accessibility and quality of municipal social services for IDPs and local community.

Presently social services in Berdyansk are being delivered by a number of municipal institutions, including the Centre of Social Services for Family, Children and Youth, the Children's Protection Service, and the Department for Family, Youth and Sport of the Municipal Council. Each of these institutions performs unique but complementary functions. Because of territorial dispersion of the services a person applying for help to one of the services cannot receive the entire service package at one place but has to attend different locations. This issue is aggravated by the fact that the IDPs from elsewhere could hardly find their bearings on the new ground. Quite often these difficulties make people in need give up searching for help. To address these accessibility shortcomings, it is reasonable to relocate to one place the structural units dealing with the urgent issues like family relationships problems, domestic violence, gender-based discrimination, problems with upbringing children, and providing social and psychological services. This will also allow for optimizing the assistance to IDPs and facilitating their settlement through timely involvement of the required specialist at the problem identification stage. A well-organized and timely socio-psychological care also alleviates the hardships that IDPs may suffer during the socio-cultural adaptation to new communities.

Within the proposed action, the mentioned service providers in Berdyansk will be co-located in one building and integrated, including through referrals, thus making services more easily accessible to clients. The Integrated Support Centre (ISC) will be established as a primary level "one-stop-shop" for requesting and receiving necessary information, social and psychological services, and as an entry point for referrals if needed. The quality and scope of services will be improved through professional training of staff working with clients to better address the specific needs of IDPs and to upgrade the approaches and methodologies used to deliver social and psychological services to all kinds of clients. The ISC will work for both the IDP and host communities treating them equally helping people to inclusively exercise their rights and mitigate the effects of the armed conflict in Donbas. However, because of a greater demand resulting from the displacement of some 11 thousand people from the anti-terrorist operation zone, and the specific nature of social and psychological issues they have, the needs of IDPs in receiving social and psychological support will be treated as priority.

As a Result 1 of the action, the needs of IDPs and local community in social and psychological services will be better addressed by the municipal social service providers. Activities 1 and 2 will contribute to the achievement of this result.

Specific Objective 2: Improved municipal community infrastructure for the provision of selected public services for IDPs and local community.

For achieving this objective, the local authorities will use the funds provided within the proposed action to do renovation works at the two municipal buildings that will host public services. A new kindergarten will be established in one renovated building sharing premises with the municipal Centre for Social Rehabilitation of Children with Disabilities. In the other building a newly established Integrated Services Centre will be co-located with the Territorial Centre of Social Care for Older and Disabled Persons.

The demand for day care of children at kindergartens is very high in Berdyansk. The 15 functioning kindergartens in the city are able to meet only about 50% of the need, based on the estimates of the local authorities. As of 25 December 2014, the municipal department for education has officially filed 55 requests from families of IDPs to enrol their children to kindergartens. There are also 13 children with disabilities in such families who require social and health rehabilitation at specialized institutions. The city's locality of Sklovolokno having a population of about 24 thousand people, only 693 children attend the three available kindergartens No. 25, 34 and 34. These kindergartens are overloaded by some 40% since their combined occupancy is 490 children only. The waiting list in this locality currently has 508 children. A recent survey among children of pre-school age who attended kindergartens has found that about 60% of children have speech development disorders. The number of children at municipal kindergartens officially registered as having health problems is 181.

The proposed action envisages opening of a new kindergarten serving the Sklovolokno locality in a renovated building, with a total planned occupancy of 150 children (8 groups), including 24 openings for children with speech disorders and 40 openings for children requiring health condition surveillance, medical treatment and rehabilitation. Apart from partially quenching the need for day care of children, this will create more opportunities for families and women as most frequent caretakers of children to engage in economic activities thus creating better conditions for a smooth social integration. The opening of a new kindergarten will also create more jobs in Berdyansk for child educators, caretakers, health workers, cooks, psychologists, administrative and maintenance staff – a typical staffing table for an 8-group kindergarten includes 54 employees of various professions.

Renovated premises will also be made available to the municipal Centre for Social Rehabilitation of Children with Disabilities, Integrated Support Centre and Territorial Centre of Social Care for Older and Disabled Persons. Therefore, the quality of respective services provided will improve for the clients, and working conditions for the staff delivering services will improve as well. Furthermore, the upgrade of premises will allow for expanding the scope of services: e.g. the ISC will have a conference facility that could be used for education and training, communication events, community meetings and workshops, which is now unavailable due to space limitations.

All service facilities mentioned above will be also receive essential furniture, equipment and appliances necessary for their operations and better delivery of services to their clients. The renovation works and procurement of equipment will develop the municipal public service infrastructure and will yield Result 2 of the action, which is better service conditions at the municipal kindergarten, Centre for Social Rehabilitation of Children with Disabilities, Integrated Support Centre and Territorial Centre of Social Care for Older and Disabled Persons. Activities 3, 4, 5 and 6 will contribute to the achievement of this result.

Overall Objective 2: Improved conditions for engagement in economic activities for IDPs and local community

The economic integration of IDPs with the receiving community is an important precondition for their full social integration, in terms of gaining economic independence, improving self-esteem and making equal contribution to local development. The IDPs may become fully integrated when they are able to make equal social and economic contributions to the society. The proposed action will address the issue of economic engagement of IDPs and local communities through promoting social entrepreneurship, a rather innovative approach to organizing economic activities where generated income is used to pursue social values.

Specific Objective 3: Strengthened capacity of IDP and host communities to support local economic development through social enterprises.

A social enterprise is a business that runs for a social purpose. Like any business, a social enterprise focuses on generating an income through the sale of goods and services to a market but the added value of a social

enterprise comes from the way in which it uses its profits to maximise social and community benefits. The proposed action will identify individuals and community groups in Berdyansk who are interested in doing business for a social purpose and introduce the concept of social entrepreneurship to them, develop their knowledge necessary to start a social enterprise, and expose them to successful models of social businesses working in Ukraine and abroad.

Through this training, civil activists among IDPs and local communities will build their social entrepreneurship knowledge and skills, which is Result 3 of the action. It is expected that developing this capacity will not only create more opportunities for IDPs and host communities to contribute to local community development, but that staring social businesses will also serve a good social integration platform for IDPs and local residents. Activity 7 will contribute to the achievement of this result. It is also worth mentioning that opening a new kindergarten will contribute to this specific objective because receiving day care for children will open more opportunities to families to engage in economic activities.

Overall Objective 3: Initiation of reconciliation between IDPs and host community

One of the effects of the rapid population growth in Berdyansk caused by the recent influx of IDPs (and seen elsewhere in major IDP receiving areas) is social and psychological tensions within and between the communities. They are mostly caused by the post-conflict psychological stress and loss of orientation in the new place, but also by popular misconceptions and stereotypes, e.g. of radical cultural differences, competition for resources, inequality in rights. Respectively, the proposed action will support reconciliation and building social consensus between the IDPs and host communities through eliminating the possible causes for conflicts.

Specific Objective 4: Reduced stereotypes and stigmata regarding IDPs.

On the one hand, psychologists and social workers from the municipal public services will be trained to help IDPs overcome the psychological factors that facilitate conflicts and tensions (and this is the link to Specific Objective 1 of the action). On the other hand, the action will influence the information environment in the municipality of Berdyansk through working with the local mass media to explain and dismantle the negative stereotypes associated with IDPs and to destigmatize them. Also, the action will address school students with extracurricular social events aiming at fostering a culture of peace, dignity and social consensus finding between people with different backgrounds. Therefore, community level interaction that encourages tolerance and understanding between IDPs and host communities will be promoted, which is Result 4 of the proposed action. Activities 8 and 9 will contribute to the achievement of this result.

The proposed action has the following target groups: social workers and psychologists from the municipal social services, psychologists and social educators from kindergartens and schools, IDPs and local residents interested in social entrepreneurship, local journalists. The final beneficiaries of the action are municipal public services (new kindergarten, Centre of Social Rehabilitation of Children with Disabilities, Centre of Social Services for Family, Children and Youth, the Children's Protection Service, the Department for Family, Youth and Sport of the Municipal Council of Berdyansk, Territorial Centre of Social Care for Older and Disabled Persons), local mass media, children attending kindergartens and schools in Berdyansk, individuals and families receiving social and psychological support from the municipal social service institutions, disabled children, disabled adults and older persons receiving social care from specialized social care providers.

Дата добавления: 2015-08-20