Bringing the role of the competence of social workers to the spotlight

This is indeed a very sad situation for a family in a crisis when incompetent specialist is involved. The social worker who struggles to understand (or doesn’t know) how to help parents in crisis can contribute to the worsening of the situation rather than helping them. Unfortunately, for many families in Russia such situations are still a reality. This is why Taganka children’s fund (TCF) pays a lot of attention to development and realization of innovative programmes for skills improvement of specialists working with children. On the 29-31 October 2015 Sergey Borzov (TCF, expert of the Charitable foundation for preventing social orphanhood) conducted a seminar in Cherepovets in the north-west of Russia. The seminar was organized by the charitable foundation “Way home” (from Chelyabinsk in the Ural region of Russia). During these three days the interagency team was tackling the issue of the best practice in providing support to families which are affected by the alcohol dependency. Beneficiaries of the seminar included leaders of the projects, psychologists and social workers. In spite of the diverse range of issues the participants are working with in their projects (including families in difficult life situations, families with disabled members, substitute families and families with children up to 3 y.o.), in each of those projects there are cases affected by the alcohol dependency issue. During the seminar Sergey Borzov has proposed the new innovative procedure of engaging with families with this issue. This procedure has been piloted before and has shown high results rates.

Up to 30 social specialists from Ryazan in Russia have received an
opportunity to train in methods of protecting childhood of the children
in families in crisis situations, making sure children are shielded from
conflicts and substance-abuse and parent do not look at social workers
as a threat to their families, as well as so that social workers didn’t
get disillusioned in their distinguished work.
On the 18-20 November 2015 Sergey Borzov (TCF) conducted a seminar
titled “Implementation of the procedures of early detection and action
on the issue” in the city of Ryazan. Participants received an
opportunity to learn modern methods of providing support to the families
in crisis and practiced basic skills. Up to 30 specialists from the
regional centre and various settlements around Ryazan took part in the
seminar. Participants included heads of the departments, specialists of
state healthcare, education, social, guardianship and custody
institutions, as well as commission on affairs of minors and protection
of their rights, other NGOs of the city of Ryazan and Ryazan region.
This event was part of the earlier achieved agreement with the
Government of the Ryazan region and the charitable foundations for
prevention of social orphanhood (Moscow) on formation of the model of
prevention of social orphanhood in Ryazan region. This event was funded
by the charitable foundation of Elena and Gennady Timchenko.