Community. Child. Family

Community. Child. Family

Hugs 2.0

Is a project aimed at supporting the implementation of deinstitutionalization reform in Ukraine and the development of alternative forms of family education.

The project includes the following areas of work:

Information support for communities through the work of mobile teams consisting of three specialists – a lawyer, a psychologist, and a social worker – and individual consultations for potential candidates.
Professional development of specialists through training for social service workers, supervision meetings, and joint development of methodological resources.
Support for alternative family forms of upbringing through the organization of educational events and recreational programs to relieve the burden on caregivers.
Development of cooperation between local authorities, social service workers, non-governmental organizations, and representatives of alternative forms of family education through the organization of round tables.

The Embrace 2.0 project is implemented by the Ukrainian Education Platform Charitable Organization with the support of the International Rescue Committee in the Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kherson regions. The materials presented do not necessarily reflect the views of the IRC.

Space of Care

A center for social and educational services for families and children, where specialists identify, respond to, and prevent the deterioration of the social situation of children in the city.

The project is being implemented in three cities in Ukraine: Kryvyi Rih, Poltava, and Kharkiv. It is being developed in partnership with the Caritas Kryvyi Rih and Caritas Poltava charitable foundations and the Parish of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Kharkiv.

Space of Care provides the following services:

speech therapist;
psychologist for adults and children;
preschool education teacher;
preparation for the National Multidisciplinary Test (Ukrainian language, Ukrainian history, mathematics, English language);
catechesis;
group events on psychological and social topics for community residents.

Minimum package of integrated social services
for families with children

The initiative aims to provide sustainable services of the minimum package of integrated social services to further develop standards for these services at the state level.

In 6 communities of Chernihiv Oblast, our organization is implementing the UNICEF in Ukraine project «Minimum Package of Integrated Social Services for Families with Children».

The Ukrainian Education Platform is part of a consortium of organizations implementing this project in the country. In particular, we are implementing it together with CSO «Ukrainian Child Rights Network», CO «Charitable Foundation «SOS Children's Villages» Ukraine», and NGO «Social Synergy» in 28 communities of Ukraine.

The «Minimum Package of Integrated Social Services for Families with Children» proposes the development and implementation of, for example, such services as social support for alternative forms of fostering (Foster Care, Guardianship, Care); day care for children with disabilities; crisis intervention. It also strengthens the development of social services: mediation, parental competence development, early intervention, and psychosocial support.

The project is financially supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development through the German Development Bank (KFW).

Spaces of Care
(Hospital Points)

Psychosocial support spaces are safe places for children, located in city hospitals and clinics. Since March 2024, such centers have been operating on the basis of city children's hospitals in Kamensk and Zaporizhia. Their goal is to support families who find themselves in difficult life circumstances during their child's treatment.

When a child is admitted to hospital, it is always stressful – both for the child and for the whole family. At this point, it is important to have specialists nearby who can provide professional support, listen, and help. That is why hospital spaces bring together psychologists and social workers who provide comprehensive support to the child and their family.

How do the Spaces help?

For parents:

First psychological aid;
Counseling in crisis situations;
Support during the postpartum period (including in the neonatal and maternity wards);
Counseling on responsible parenting;
Information about social benefits, paperwork, payments, and leave options.

For children:

One-to-one counseling and group sessions;
Emotional support after surgery, serious injuries (including mine-and blast-related trauma);
Support for children with disabilities or special educational needs;
Informal education, creative workshops, and hands-on activities;
Help with socialization and peer interaction;
Social support;
Assessment of family needs
Assistance with paperwork (disability, social benefits, etc.);
Navigation support: where and how to access available services.

Specialists from Psychosocial Support Spaces work closely with hospital staff to ensure holistic care tailored to each child’s best interests. This collaboration helps ensure both physical healing and emotional and social support for young patients and their families.

Children feel safe, open up to the specialists, and begin to trust. Parents, in turn, receive not only support – but reassurance that they’re not alone on this journey.

Good Neighbour

Is a project that supports families facing difficult life circumstances, especially those affected by the ongoing full-scale war. Its goal is to prevent social isolation and institutionalization of children, as well as to assist families with everyday challenges.

The core idea of the project:

We aim to create an environment where families in crisis are not left to face their problems alone. By building connections with the community and providing daily support, families are given the opportunity to transform their lives – step by step.

Who is a Good Neighbor?

A Good Neighbor is a volunteer who supports families in crisis by:

helping them access necessary resources;
assisting parents with child-rearing;
serving as a bridge between families and the community;
helping them overcome isolation;
supporting them in managing everyday challenges.

This is more than just help – it’s a partnership built on trust, respect, and understanding.

Where does the project operate?

In 2025, Good Neighbor operates in the following cities:

Centers:
Lviv, Kamyanske, Cherkasy, Kropyvnytskyi
Volunteers: a team of volunteers provides support for families.
Families supported: 31 families raising
81 children
Good Neighbor also operates through Spaces of Care: in Kharkiv, Poltava, and Kryvyi Rih.

Children's spaces

Project goal: Creating a child-friendly environment for children (adolescents, youth), where various services, services and formative activities could be combined for the successful socialization of children in society (community).

The main idea is to create children's spaces in churches, NGOs, and CCCs. Many stakeholders are trying to create children's spaces for various reasons (localization of a large number of children in one environment, creation of a safe space for children to minimize the impact of traumatic experiences, provision of a training component in online education, non-formal education, psychosocial work).

Children's spaces are a form of work that provides quick access to the child and, through them, to the family. In humanitarian response, children's spaces are often places where social services are provided (information, counseling, daycare, social support, etc.).

A total of 79 613 children received psychosocial support and non-formal education services
756 social work specialists were engaged (comprehensive training program to improve the competencies of specialists working with children)
Humanitarian aid: 46 860 people received stationery, clothing, hygiene and recreation kits
Case management services: 1 213 families received comprehensive case management for families in difficult life circumstances
Psychological support for 1 122 mothers and children
Methodological recommendations for creating spaces developed

204 families were involved and provided with needs assessment and services
1 537 people were reached, including
857 adults (344 men/513 women) and
680 children (330 boys/350 girls)
7 150 services were provided for children and parents in total
104 social tutoring sessions for children of senior school age

Spilno for family

Spilno for family project provides assistance to families with children. This initiative was implemented in 4 oblasts of Ukraine: Lviv, Kharkiv, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia.

The main outcome of the project is to develop families’ self-sufficiency.

The project includes five outputs. Each of them makes opportunities to help those in difficult life circumstances to increase their knowledge and specialists’ skills, to cherish mutual support and assistance in hromadas.

«Spilno» spots for children

These are the spaces, where social work specialists, speech therapists and psychologists work with children and provide consultations for their parents. Three out of five «Spilno» spots operate basing at medical institutions. This largely defines the focus of specialists’ work and challenges they face. Here it goes about stabilizing parents’ condition, whose children’s hard injuries are to affect their quality of life.

Also «Spilno» spots:

helping children adapt after surgery;
helping children who have been removed from their families; often, the hospital is the first place they end up after being removed. As part of the project, we try to ensure that children are placed in foster care rather than in hospitals.

Thanks to great team work of «Spilno» spots specialists and their sensible approach to each visitor, a great number of parents have normalized applying to psychologists and psychiatrists for themselves. This has a huge impact on getting rid of stigmatizing mental health issues.

«Spilno» spots within our project are not just the locations for a first contact with children in hromada, but also they have become a space to solve difficult cases (assistance for children with complex development and speech disorders and for children separated from families) and to provide emergency response to hromada’s needs.

FICE International «Hand in Hand» Task Force

The program aims to provide emotional, educational, and psychological support to children and families affected by displacement, loss, and trauma caused by the war. The value of our community lies in uniting professionals working with children to support them and enhance their knowledge during wartime.

In August 2022, FICE International, in partnership with FICE Israel, the Revived Gymnasiums of Ukraine Association, and the Educatoria NGO, launched the «Hand in Hand» Task Force in response to the crisis in Ukraine.

Key areas of work:

Psychosocial support: individual and group sessions for children with specialists to help them overcome the effects of traumatic experiences.
Educational initiatives: ensuring access to education despite the challenges of war, supporting distance learning and integrating children into new educational environments.
Training for professionals: special trainings for social workers, teachers and psychologists on working with traumatised children.
Roundtables and discussions: meetings of experts to find effective solutions in the field of education and support for children during the war.
Partnership initiatives: cooperation with FICE Netherlands, Mulberry Bush (UK) and other international organisations to expand opportunities to support children and improve the competence of professionals working with them.

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Good community

A training and grant project that aims to raise awareness of initiative groups of territorial communities on the procedure for determining the needs of the community population for social services, planning and development of social services.

Project goal: To strengthen the capacity of territorial communities to develop a social service delivery system by providing initiative groups with effective tools for analyzing, planning, and developing social services, as well as to preserve family integrity and respect the basic right of children to grow up in a family environment. social services, planning and development of social services.

8 hromadas received training
3 communities received grants
(Kolomyia, Kamianka-Buzka, Berezhany)

Domivka

Project goal: To provide people from the affected communities with comfortable living and development conditions in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zakarpattia, and Ternopil regions, as well as to help local civil society activists respond to wartime emergencies and establish cooperation between the community, government, and business, and facilitate the adaptation of shelter residents in host communities.

The main idea of the project is to provide better living conditions for people with children; create housing banks from a database of places where people from affected communities can move in; ensure the operation of hotlines that provide daily information support on finding a place to live for people from affected communities; and integrate people from affected communities into new communities as full-fledged residents.