UPDATE ON SUMMER TRAININGS IN ILDC!

 On May 5^th, 2011 ILDC had the training on Trauma- Part III with Marek Wnuk .  The trainer comes from Poland. Several years ago he has started children’s center outside of Kiev, called “Sunshine” and is very familiar with the needs of Ukraine in this area. Periodically he comes to Ukraine to conduct various trainings in child welfare. We were fortunate to partner with him this past spring. There were total of 3 Modules of this training. The training was for social workers, foster and adoptive parents and trainers. We had 15 people that went through this training and had lots of good feed-back about the usefulness of this training for them. They especially appreciated such a great variety of practical exercises they now can use with children who they work with.

On May 12-13, 2011 there was a training that ILDC had on topic of «Art-therapy”. There were 32 participants that attended this 2 day training. This training was conducted by the very experienced and knowledgeable team of art-therapists, counselors, psychologists from US. This topic is of great interest in Ukraine among psychologists, counselors and social workers and we had a very large audience! The participants were especially grateful to get lots of practical skills, many new ideas for the counseling sessions and their direct work with children. There were lots of questions and a great desire to continue the training on the subject. New specialists and those with more experience have found lots of helpful information for the work they do in Ukraine.

On May 16-17, 2011 we had the same type of training on Art-therapy with the same group of trainers for a different group of participants. This time the training included the elements of Sand-tray therapy, which was a great introduction for many participants who have heard about this approach for the first time. The training was held outside of Kiev at the facilities of the organization called “Father’s House”. However, the participants have come from all over Ukraine to have a chance to attend this training. It was a great successes and everyone enjoyed it a lot! In spite of the fact that now it was second time offered, we got 27 participants to attend. Many have asked when we have next training on this subject and eagerly anticipating more training in this area!

On May 12-14 ILDC has conducted another  training for the foster parents, which took place in Chernigov Region, Ukraine. There was a group of about 10 families present, who really needed more education on how to raise their foster children. The group had lots of good questions and appreciated practical ideas on how to understand and deal with difficult behavior of the children, most of whom have experienced complex trauma in their early childhood. This training was held for 3 days and was conducted by our Ukrainian trainer- Vika Myelnichenko.

 On May 24-26 ILDC has conducted 3 day training in Poltava, Ukraine for the group of social workers. The topic was «Assessment in family-oriented approach».   There were 14 social workers that participated from the local social service. There was a great interest to see video materials and practical exercises that participants got to do throughout the training. Everyone got more familiar with the process of doing assessment and all the different stages in order to effectively identify the situation in the family. Participants have practiced how to record only facts vs. their subjective opinion of the situation of the family. The group was very motivated and interested.

On the 14-16 of June, 2011 ILDC has sent a trainer to Zaporozhie, Ukraine for 3 days to do the training on «Сase-planning in family oriented approach».  This is Module 5 of our core training for social workers. There were 26 participants from various social services in the region of Zaporozhie. The participants had a wide range of experience in the field, ranging from 10 days up to 13 years. Everyone has been learning lots of new information in the area of work they do, whether new social workers or those that have more experience. The participants have gained a deep understanding of the importance of planning in the area of child welfare, the benefits of planning and their responsibilities in planning. They also have learned the practical steps to effective case planning. It was a motivated group that has showed great interest to learn as much as possible!

 On the June 13-14^th, 2011 Lynn and Ruby Johnston have continued with the series in leadership in Kiev. This time it was module 3 for the group of 12 people, which have started going through this course in early spring. This group is all leaders, managers, directors and supervisors that are committed to continually grow in their leadership skills as they supervise people in various organizations all over Ukraine in child welfare organizations. Each time this group has lots of great questions and is very enthusiastic about learning and applying effective skills in being managers!

On the June 29- July 1^st, 2011 there was training for the foster families in the city Smyela in Cherkassi Region, Ukraine. There were 10 foster and guardian families that went through this training. This was quite a big and important event for the city and the local TV put it on their news. This was the first training ILDC has done in this city and they are already requesting more trainings from ILDC and are very interested in further partnership.

On July 29, 2011 our Ukrainian trainer, specialist in adoption and manager of “Adopt Ukraine” project has conducted the training for the foster and adoptive parents on the topic of “Telling the Truth to your adoptive or foster child”. This is a one day seminar. The training is based on the book by Jayne Schooler and Betsy Keefer that is now available in Russian too. More and more regions of Ukraine now learn about this book and it is of great interest to a large audience. ILDC has more new requests to have this topic be presented in other parts of Ukraine.

UKRAINE WITHOUT ORPHANS!!!

We are continuing working with churches presenting and promoting national adoption in Ukraine. We have just got report from our Adopt Ukraine project manager Victoria. 
We had a wonderful opportunity to present our work and our passion in Good News Church Dnepropetrovsk region. At the end of her presentation 4 families came up to us and have asked us if we could provide them with more information about how they can adopt a child. 
We hope that more children instead of living in orphanages would find Christian families where they would live in warm, loving and carrying environment.

We are very excited to see more churches getting in to this movement which is spreading around Ukraine at this moment. 

UKRAINE WITHOUT ORPHANS - OUR PASSION IS COMING REAL!!! 

: )

WOUNDED CHILDREN - HEALING HOMES PROJECT UPDATE!

It has been almost two months since we started translation of the book. We want to give you little update about it, what stage the translation is at and when it is going to be finished.

We have already translated 12 chapters of the book and there is only one chapter left. For the next two weeks the text of the book will be edited and proof-read.

We hope to publish the book at the end of August and organize book presentation event in September!

There are many adoptive and foster parents, as well as social workers and adoption specialists who have been waiting on the book! We hope as they use it, they will find the best ways to help traumatized children to recover from traumas of the past. : )

         

TRAINING FOSTER AND ADOPTIVE FAMILIES IN WESTERN UKRAINE!

International Leadership and Development Center has  trained 17 adoptive and foster parents in Uzhgorod city in Western part of  Ukraine. At this training parents received valuable knowledge that will help them in raising their foster and adoptive children.  Over the training ILDC national trainers went through four main topics, such as: The Identity of adoptive and foster child, Sexual Behavior, Working with Teenagers and Burnout. At the end of the training, parents had expressed their gratitude for organizing this training and shared with us how valuable this training was to them.

Providing post placement trainings for foster and adoptive parents is very important. There are over 8000 children in foster families and about 2000 children adopted per year by Ukrainian families. Usually families are very enthusiastic when they take children and have a sincere desire to help them. They also go through some pre placement trainings offered by the government and NGOs. But it is after the placement when they need training and support the most. Because once they begin to face difficulties and challenges with their new children they become discouraged and burnt out. There is no post placement trainings available for them yet. All this can cause bad consequences and traumas for foster and adoptive children when they can suffer in their new families or be returned back to the orphanages in the worst case.

That’s why it so vital to help adoptive and foster families at this moment providing for them with resources that could help them in raising their adoptive and foster children. 

Besides this training we were able to develop very good partnership with local Social Service and another organization, called  “Nehemiah”. With this new partnership we  will be able to conduct more trainings for adoptive and foster families in that part of the county.  

We already have scheduled next training for a new group of parents in region in the beginning  of August.

If you are interested  in supporting this post placement trainings for foster and adoptive families in Ukraine email us at info@ildcua.org

Thank you : )

SHE ALMOST LOST HER KIDS!!!

Nina Terpugova is a single parent of two of her 5 and 3 year old sons. They have struggled  with finding permanent place to live and when the Children Service had found out about her situation they  wanted to terminate her parental rights and take the children to the orphanage.  Local Social Service have approached us with the request to help them to find the best solution so that this family could be preserved. We already had similar situations in the past and at this time we had to act quickly. At that moment our partner organization had available space in one of their program homes. We were able to cooperate with them and place this family in this temporary home. So at this  moment this family have a temporary place to live and  we are trying to help Nina to find job so she could provide for the kids. Our next step will be to activate churches to help this family to find a permanent place to live. 

The kids were very happy to stay with their mom. They attend kindergarten while we are helping Nina to find a place to work.

We would like to ask you to consider this family in your prayers that God would help us to find a permanent home for them and second prayer request that God would help Nina to find a permanent job.

JUDY RYCUS HAS ARRIVED IN KIEV!

IHS program director, an author of 4 volumes of the Files Guide to Child Welfare and the member of the ILDC Board Judy Rycus has  arrived  to Kiev this Friday. Judy has played a major role in promoting best practice in Child Welfare of Ukraine. IHS trainings programs have been broadly used across Ukraine and beyond. We are very privileged to have these programs as they help us to  promote best practice in the area of Child Welfare in Ukraine.

We welcome Judy in Kiev and hope her visit will be enjoyable

NEW ADOPTIVE AND FOSTER FAMILIES WERE TRAINED IN KRIVIY RIG!

New 12 adoptive and foster families went through training for adoptive and foster families on May 11th -13th in Kriviy Rig. These families have already adopted children. During the training we found out that most of them are willing to adopt more children from the orphanages.

The participants of the training were eager to learn new skills and new information. After the training, local churches have expressed interest in finding out more about the work with families and orphans.


We have learned that there is already a growing interest in adoption among people which we meet from different churches in Ukraine. When people find out that they can do something good for the orphans in Ukraine and it can make a difference in their lives, many turn to us for more information and counsel how they could be of help.

FINISH LINE

It has been very challenging for us in the beginning. We had met a lot opposition from the participants but after the fist module the situation had tremendously changed and participants had opportunity to learn and change their perspectives and point of
view about new ways and approaches in child welfare.

At the moment, all is left to do is print certificates for every participant of the training.

We are very eager to see in near future how these trained professionals will start to apply new skills and knowledge that they had received in their work settings. It really
inspires us every time to see transformation in thinking of a child welfare worker or a social worker. This where change begins ….

We are very excited to announce that the group of social workers from Sevastopol have successfully completed our training program “Case Worker Core” in Southern Ukraine!

Over 30 social and child welfare workers were able to go through all of the modules in a period of the last 5 months.

FIRST VOLUME OF THE FIELD GUIDE TO CHILD WELFARE HAS BEEN REPRINTED NOW!

Finally we have got to the finish line. Our publisher has reprinted first volume of the Field Guide (1500 copies) and we expect it to be delivered next week in our office.
We are very excited and look forward to reprint other three Volumes within next few month.