JOINTLY. Social services for families in communities
Towards greater social cohesion, integration and improved infrastructure for families in Eastern Ukraine
- Available in:
- Українська
- English
Challenge
Family poverty remains a major barrier to equity in Ukraine, especially for children since every third household with children lives below the poverty line. Income inequalities overlap with other deprivations for children and have a clear geographic dimension, with rural areas most disadvantaged. The social-protection system currently absorbs over 31 per cent of the consolidated budget expenditures, but it is highly focused towards cash-based support rather than social services.
Eastern Ukraine remains one of the most demanding regions as people there are greatly affected by the consequences of the ongoing conflict. The conflict has and continues to take a substantial social and economic toll on the communities that are currently hosting internally displaced people (IDPs) in eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, the capacity of the host municipalities and especially of the services still remains limited to provide quality services to one million and a half IDPs (of whom, 231 606 are children). The key reasons for the limited coverage include the lack of comprehensive inclusive social services, limited knowledge and capacity of staff in those services, lack of human and financial resources, as well as the limited demand from the community itself.
Solution
The project “Jointly” aims to strengthen ability of local communities in eastern Ukraine to provide accessible and quality social services in a sustainable manner.
Within the project, support will be rendered to local communities to ensure services for vulnerable groups of population, including:
- internally displaced families with children,
- low-income families,
- families with children with disabilities,
- children and families affected by domestic violence,
- families with children at risk of being institutionalized,
- others .
The project covers 12 amalgamated territorial communities in the east of Ukraine:
- Luhansk region (Bilokurakino, Bilovodsk, Novopskov, Chmyrivka, Troitsk)
- Donetsk region (Bakhmut, Soledar, Siversk, Druzhkivka, Mykolaivka, Mariupol, Sartana)
The project consists of two components
1. Hard Component
- Establishment of multifunctional/integrated centres for social services (renovation of selected premises according to the needs of communities)
- Refurbishment of these centres.
2. Soft Component
- Training on Case Management;
- Strengthening intersectoral cooperation;
- Support with development and budgeting of social services;
- Enhancing the communication skills of community members for social change and demand generation for social services;
- Documenting, scaling up best practices and developing recommendations on integrated community social services for internally displaced and other vulnerable families with children in Ukraine.
The project is being implemented by UNICEF and partners at financial support from the Government of Germany and the German Development Bank (KfW).
