CCF-Belarus Country Representative Takes Part in International Roundtable for PRIDE Program Users
27-28 February, 2008 Irina Mironova, CCF-Belarus Country Representative took part in the International Roundtable for PRIDE Program Users which was organized in Washington, DC by the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA).
The PRIDE Program (Parent Resources for Information, Development, and Education) is an innovative model developed by CWLA for developing and supporting foster families and adoptive families. Today the Program is being implemented in 32 states of the USA, 9 Canadian provinces and territories, and 20 other countries.
The roundtable provided an excellent opportunity for PRIDE users from the United States, Canada and Europe to share their experiences, challenges, and successes, to learn how the program materials are used in creative ways in different countries and how the changing needs of foster parents and adoptive parents can be best met. Among the roundtable participants were representatives from four European countries - Poland, Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus.
In her presentation Irina Mironova gave a brief overview of the current condition of the children in institutions in Belarus and the adoption and foster care situation in the country. She presented a detailed description of CCF-Belarus experience of introducing the PRIDE Program within the Supporting Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Belarus project and emphasized several unique features of the program implementation, including:
- focus on project oriented approach;
- multi-stakeholder involvement through empowerment of key community groups (parents, local authorities, specialists);
- CCF-Belarus not only conducts training in PRIDE Program for specialists of state services, but also provides constant assistance, supervision, monitoring and evaluation to ensure that the program implementation standards are fully met on the local level. This divided responsibility approach ensures high quality of the PRIDE model implementation and builds foundation for its future sustainability;
- additional trainings on project management, M&E, public awareness campaigns are offered for the local PRIDE users, which also contributes to the program sustainability.
The presentation also listed future plans of CCF-Belarus in PRIDE implementation, including starting trainings of PRIDE In-Service methodology, conducting a series of TOT trainings for PRIDE master trainers, dissemination of the PRIDE model to other Belarus communities and promoting it on the national level.
The presentation of CCF-Belarus Country Representative was received with great interest by the roundtable participants. Many of them stated that the information presented was new, useful and encouraging, and the approaches and practices used in Belarus can be effectively introduced by the PRIDE users in other countries.
