Tough Stuff and Fun Stuff

We met a couple who foster boys from the street here in Odessa. They have participated in our foster care training and will continue to participate in the support group for LifeStart's foster parents. By their organistation, they were provided with a house with enough room for 10 boys. However, problems in their organisation has resulted in them only having 4 boys in their house. They fear that their house will be closed altogether in the next few years. We were able to visit this housу and meet the boys. It was great to see that something was available for boys, but also difficult to see how unsupported they were. Hopefully they will be able to benefit from the support through LifeStart. 

The house: Rick, Maxim,  Sergiy, Ira, Alexei, Igor, Dima, Marina, Anita, and Dina

On a lighter note, we were able to visit an orphanage and do some work there. It was good for the life skills teachers to see the place where they will be working. We also enjoyed a road trip and some fun. 

Here Cathy is having a wild time at the orphanage. 

 Team Foster Care work through some heavy material at the orphanage

Team Life Skills also plowing through the modules and getting acquainted with the space

And here is the whole of team LifeStart, teachers, translators, and even a girl from Hope House (who recently came from the orphanage we were visiting)

And so, the learning and teaching continues. We have only 2 days left of the training week! Here's hopeing we have time enough to get through all the necessary material! :)

Part 2!

This week is a busy one! Both the foster care pilot team and the life skills team are here training this week! We had some hiccups in getting our life skills team here (flight delays, mix ups in airports, etc.). However, we are all here now and diving into the life and work!

One of the key lessons both teams are currently learning is the need for flexibility here! Plans can change minute by minute here, so we’ve had to drastically readjust some of the work on short notice.

We have had some frustrations as well as pleasant surprises regarding the foster pilot! We had one couple who was 100% on board with becoming foster parents and three other families that were considering this. Unfortunately, two of the potential families decided not to become foster parents. After spending the evening with the remaining people, the remaining potential became very keen on the program! Other lessons include changing the approach to training and preparing foster parents. We have had to work hard on selling the foster parents on the program, as opposed to preparing them for the various behaviours they might encounter. Our focus has been on training the trainers. All is going well, but there has been a lot of rolling with the punches.

We had a great day today meeting with the foster families. Day one involved the protocols and encouraging the foster parents. Day two involved training anв preparation of foster parents. We were able to do the training in the comfort of the home of one of our foster parents. It was great to get to know each other and teach and learn!

Here is Rick and Marina working together in the training

Here is Team Foster Care (Rick, Anita, and our translator Marina) 

with Nadya and Vasili, our potential foster parents. 

Here is our other foster parents, Larissa and Sergiy, who will be taking 4 girls!

As for the life skills team, we’ve had a very successful first day. Our team met the teachers and other World Hope staff this morning and launched into teaching the curriculum! We are getting along well and the teachers are definitely engaging with the material! The teachers are responding well to the format of our materials. Sometimes the material is difficult for them and they are hesitant to teach this, but after some discussion, they see the value of teaching some of these more difficult and personal topics!

 Team life skills preping for a busy day of training!

Here is Bea working with our translation on our first day

Our teachers Valya and Alyona are in the forground 

whilst World Hope Ukraine staff Kostya and Tatiyana are in the background

Kim and Candice working hard :)

Enjoying an icebreaker with the teachers! :)

So, all in all, life here in Ukraine is going well. We are all doing a lot of learning and having some fun as well!

And so it begins!

At long last, after more than a year of preparation, the day has come to implement the pilots! Team Foster Care (Rick, Anita, and myself) arrived in Odessa on 19 June tired, but unscathed! This past week has been a busy one of training Dina, our World Hope Ukraine’s Foster Care Coordinator, in her many roles and responsibilities. This has also been a long process of editing the protocols, ensuring a final product that would work in Ukraine, culturally, politically, and financially.

Day one of the training. We had a full house as we introduced the foster care protocols to World Hope Ukraine Staff. From left to right we have Dina (Foster Care Coordinator), Marina (Translator), Rick (Canadian Team Trainer), Kostya (Life Skills Project Coordinator), Sergiy (WHU Director), Tatiyana (First Step Centre Coordinator), Lina (Head of Hope House), Anita (Canadian Team Trainer).  

Working around the table 

Rick and Anita: Expert Volunteer Trainers!

So far things have gone very well. The work has been tiring, but we’ve also had the opportunity to explore the city, hit the beach, enjoy the sunshine, and hangout with everyone at Hope House.  We have another week of foster care training ahead of us, including working with foster parents!

Here is everyone gathered for a birthday celebration at Hope House.

And so, all is well in Odessa! We’ve had one busy and productive week of training with Team Foster Care. Team Life Skills will all be here shortly and ready to start our week of life skills training!