Support for children and youth in difficult life circumstances
The area began its work in 2019, when we analyzed the situation with the development and socialization of children and youth in difficult life circumstances.
Thanks to the study, we realized that this category of population is not only vulnerable, but also not socialized, as children and young people spend most of their time in boarding schools without contact with the outside world or at school, where they receive only basic knowledge of formal education.
Having realized the problematic nature of the whole situation, we started looking for volunteers who would be willing to work with children and youth and provide them with basic knowledge and skills in non-formal education.
We wanted to give them knowledge on topics that educators or teachers will not talk about. These are basic communication skills; using gadgets and computers; financial literacy; sexual education, knowledge about the constitution of boys and girls, the signs and manifestations of growing up, and how to respond to them; legal literacy - knowledge about their rights and opportunities; first aid, how to seek help from doctors.
And we want to note that we managed to realize everything we had planned. We started with small friendly meetings in different institutions. Then we expanded our opportunities and cooperation, and began to implement non-formal education courses. We provided mentoring support to young people who had graduated from boarding schools.
Some of the trainings, meetings and master classes were held at our social support resource center, which also started operating in 2019.
In 2022, we started working with children and young people who had been internally displaced to our city and region, involving them in joint events, introducing them to our regular visitors, and working on their socialization into a new community in the first months.
Nowadays, we hold large-scale events for children and youth from different categories of the population more often. The last meetings we held were aimed at motivating children and youth to develop in various fields through meetings with successful people of our city. It was a meeting with the mayor of the city, where participants could learn more about the work of the person who leads the city, what it is like to have so much responsibility and what interesting things they have to face in their work. For the second meeting, we invited a well-known Carpathian guide who has been leading sightseeing tours to the Carpathians for more than 20 years and annually celebrates New Year's Eve on Mount Hoverla.
We also have English language, financial literacy, and sexuality education courses at the newly opened GROW UP social support resource center.
