Overall targets
Children are better protected by state and civil society in Kotayk Province, Armenia.
Immediate targets
1. Local state social and child protection specialists of Kotayk Province are capacitated with relevant knowledge and hands-on skills to meet their obligations in accordance with nationally defined standards and approaches in the field of child protection with a sustainable approach. 2. Local community and representatives from the target group have basic knowledge of decision-making process, case management and child protection and meet with relevant bodies (GTC, CPU and TSPA) regularly.
Target groups
The primary target group is the vulnerable children and their families who will benefit from more effective functioning of child welfare system in Kotayk Province. Kotayk Province has the second highest rate of children living in extreme poverty (8,1%) and the third highest rate of children living in poverty (51,3%). There are approximately 1.000 children living in poverty or extreme poverty in the four towns of Kotayk Province, who will benefit from this project. The proposed project will involve specialists from three state social structures of Kotayk province that are the most pivotal bodies to make child protection related decisions and representatives from vulnerable families affected by these decisions. The secondary target group is divided into the following categories: A) Guardianship and Trusteeship Committees (GTC) in seven towns of Kotayk Province: GTCs are the main grassroots level child protection bodies that are responsible for identification the most vulnerable children, conduct the preliminary assessment and compile required information and documents on the identified children. Those structures operate on voluntary basis through involving representative of all relevant bodies such as Police Juvenile Department, a paediatrician from local primary health care centre, school principal, psychologist and CSO representative. It should be mentioned that one co-worker from local municipality is assigned to coordinate and organise the work of GTCs and they are called GTC secretaries. B) Child Protection Unit (CPU) of Kotayk Province Governor’s Office: Child Protection Unit is a formal child structure composed of eight employees: seven specialists and a head. CPU operates on Kotayk Province level through acting as a child protection watchdog, multidisciplinary team to ensure state child protection policy and legislation implementation in the province. Currently Kotayk CPU is fully staffed with four social workers, one psychologist, one doctor, one lawyer and the head. C) Territorial Social Protection Agencies (TSPA) in towns of Kotayk Province: TSPA is responsible for conducting further detailed needs assessment of the most vulnerable children/families identified by GTCs, elaborating child/development plans and designing social protection assistance package. Each TSPA is staffed by 14 specialists including the head of the agency. D) Local community groups, also known as “Community Active Group” (CAG): which are composed of various social groups in the community. The main aim of CAG will be to oversee the quality of services and duties delivered by local/provincial state social and child protection bodies/specialists. They are not present in all seven towns, and some are not very active, so the project will work on (re-)activating these groups in the target areas. The CAGs will comprise of approximately 40 persons.
Resume
Projektet vil fremme udsatte og marginaliserede børns rettigheder til en sagsbehandling, der tager udgangspunkt i barnet interesser og lever op til Armeniens lovgivning på området. Gennem kapacitetsopbygning af de relevante lokale og provinsielle myndigheder vil projektet sikre at sagsbehandlingen for udsatte og marginaliserede børn møder familiernes behov for den rette støtte fra myndighedernes side og at børnenes interesser varetages. Projektet vil samtidig øge lokale borgerkomiteers deltagelse, repræsentation og overvågning af myndighedernes arbejde gennem styrkelse og kapacitetsopbygning af deres arbejde. Derudover vil koordineringen mellem lokale myndigheder og lokale borgerkomiteer styrkes og borgernes kendskab og indsigt i sagsbehandlingens procedure vil blive styrket.