Warm Home

The «Warm Home» project («Prevention of Social Orphanhood» programme) was designed to prevent the abandonment of newborns (or their removal from the family) by providing mothers with temporary housing. It helps to restore and strengthen the ability of women to live independently, developing their parental competence and social adaptation.

Support
prevention of social orphanhood in Russia

Beneficiaries
women at risk, with children aged up to one year old, or in late pregnancy, including those planning to abandon a newborn child/newborn children or have already issued a refusal

Project working language: Russian

Time frame: since 2011 till now

Status: active 

Updated: 09.01.2020

Contact details
Elena Andreyeva, Project Coordinator  «Warm Home»
+7 495 789 15 78
info@otkazniki.ru

Project web-site
http://www.otkazniki.ru

Social media

Video

Charitable organisation «Volunteers to Help Orphan Children»

Social challenge and reasons for project’s initiation

Immediacy of the social problem

The charitable organisation «Volunteers to help orphan children» stems from a social movement which emerged at the end of 2004 as a reaction to an outrageous situation with «otkazniki» – children left without care of their parents. Today, one of the main goals of the organisation is to prevent social orphanhood. The team is convinced that it is possible to keep a child in the family, and many children would not have been in orphanages if their parents had been provided with the required support in due time.

Children might lose their birth family not only in the event of their parents’ death or as a result of the abuse committed against them. There are situations associated with the inability of parents to take full care of children when, for example, a family does not have a permanent or even temporary place to live. The organisation’s expertise in preventing child abandonment in maternity hospitals (since 2010) revealed the following pattern: in many cases, child abandonment could be prevented if there is temporary housing and / or opportunities for intensive integrated care. Research data suggests that such support can prevent 30% – 50% cases of child abandonment[1]. Mothers voiced this need themselves when answering the question on circumstances which would help them decide to keep a child. In the framework of the «Warm Home» project, mothers with children are provided with accommodation and specialist support for families to keep a child.


[1] Research of the Foundation of Social Orphanhood Prevention: «Child abandonment: reasons and ways of prevention» (2013)

Target audience and stakeholders of the project

  • Primary beneficiaries: women at risk, with children aged up to one year old, or in late pregnancy, including those planning to abandon a newborn child/newborn children or have already issued a refusal, as well as women who are not planning to adandon the child, but they have nowhere to go to with the child after the maternity hospital, e.g:

• mothers who have nowhere to go after the maternity hospital, such as migrant mothers – they might not be allowed to come with the child to a rented accommodation; or housing conditions / behavior of other residents make accommodation a dangerous place for the child;

• other family members actively prevent the child from growing up in the family;

• there are doubts about the mother’s ability to take care of a child independently, therefore monitoring and intensive training in parenting skills are required.

Lena was born in Tashkent. She received Russian citizenship, got married to her classmate from Uzbekistan, and they settled in Samara. In 2016, she became pregnant. She was fired from work. At around the same time, the father of her child began to drink. Being drunk, he would hit her both during the pregnancy and after the birth of the child. Lena repeatedly contacted the police in Samara, filed a statement against her husband, however apart from fines, it didn’t have any effect. In August 2017, with the help of her relatives and neighbors, Lena fled to Moscow. She lived with a friend for a month, then came to our «Warm Home» center. After several months of living in the “Warm Home”, Lena found out she was expecting another child, which came as a complete surprise to her. Lena thought about giving up the baby, but after a conversation with our therapist, she changed her mind. In May 2018, she gave birth to her second boy. In mid-May, with the help of our lawyer, Lena got divorced from her husband, he was restricted in parental rights in relation to both children and obligated to pay alimony.

Story of one family, annual report of «Volunteers to support orphan children»

Stakeholders of the project:

Project’s Stakeholders:

  • employees of the temporary residence center «Warm Home» (coordinator, therapist, lawyer, administrators);

• employees of other projects related to the Programme “Prevention of Social Orphanhood” (they participate in interventions under the «Warm Home» project, as well as in consultations on the reception of new beneficiaries);

• volunteers;

• local government organizations in the area of social orphanhood prevention (they seek our expertise in dealing with complex and / or low-resource cases when it is necessary to apply NGO resources. In turn, the project staff reaches out to experts in social protection, healthcare and education to provide beneficiaries with access to local resources).

• professional community in the Russian Federation;

• staff of shelters and crisis centers for mothers with children, sector leaders (peer exchange – internships, conferences);

• donors – charitable foundations, private individuals and organizations (long-term partner – «Lifestyle» Charitable Foundation, «Need Help» Charitable Foundation, VTB Bank, KPMG, ARC Charitable Foundation, Foundation of Presidential Grants, CAF Russia, «Key» Charitable Foundation, Elena and Gennady Timchenko Charitable Foundation, “Absolute-Help” Charitable Foundation, Absolut-Bank);

•          media agencies.

Mission and goals 

Project’s aim: 

  • keep the child in the family by providing the mother with accommodation and support;
  • rebuild mother’s capacity to lead an independent life in a new status of the mother (increase mother’s social and parental capabilities).

Objectives:  objectives are personalized for each mother and monitored in individualized plans for family support.

Project description

Abandonment of newborn children or withholding of parenting rights from the woman due to her homelessness or unsuitable housing conditions has become very critical. Due to internal migration, Moscow and the Moscow region are social orphanhood “risk zones”. Meanwhile, access to public crisis centers for women is contingent on availability of permanent address in Moscow and the Moscow region. In addition, there are very few such centers. The new mother, without any support nor housing, cannot work having a newborn to take care of. There are almost no options to survive in these circumstances. They push the new mother to abandon the child in the maternity hospital.

The «Warm Home» temporary stay center is designed for mothers with newborn children who, due to the lack of housing, work, and support from relatives, are on the verge of abandoning their child or being withdrawn of parental rights by social services. The charity cooperates with several maternity hospitals, and in the event of an alleged abandonment, charity’s therapist goes to the maternity hospital to help a woman make an informed and balanced decision. If the mother is about to abandon the child because she has nowhere to go with them, she is invited to live temporarily in the «Warm Home». «Warm Home» comes to a rescue to new families.

The project helps new mothers regardless of their citizenship and availability of the permanent address in Moscow or Moscow region. But there are limitations – women with alcohol or drug addiction are not eligible.

The center provides mothers with an opportunity to assess calmly their situation without being separated from their children; get stronger, receive support and advice from the center’s specialists, and come back to everyday life with a child. Women have an personalized support plan which allows them to receive comprehensive social, legal, medical and therapeutic assistance, useful knowledge and skills. The average length of their stay in the «Warm Home» is six months. Women leave the shelter when they are ready to live independently or with minimal support from the charity.

“Our charity has initiated three main programmes which embrace all stages of social orphanhood prevention: preserving the birth family, helping children in orphanages and hospitals, and promotion of foster care. Another programme is aimed at research and providing support to orphanages which ar in the process of reforming. It looks massive, but within programmes there are specialized projects. In most cases these projects are the most labor-intensive, as they require creating new forms of assistance and working very closely with beneficiaries. The «Warm Home» temporary stay center for mothers with children is one of these projects. There are only six mothers with babies who can live there simultaneously. But each mother has her personal challenges, which can only be solved by combining the efforts of many experts and engaging relatives and friends of these women. ”

Tatyana Archakova, therapist-methodologist

Request for help can come from a woman at risk or her friends, as well as from a non-for-profit or government organization. Following a meeting between the therapist and the woman, the decision is made whether the family can be hosted in the «Warm Home». Every beneficiary will have a comprehensive support plan which includes:

• an personalized rehabilitation plan developed together with the mother;

• therapy counseling (including development of skills to take care of and communicate with the child, increasing women’s self-esteem and boosting motivation to improve their life);

• legal advice (paper work, assistance in applying for benefits, etc.);

• assistance in rebuilding relationships with relatives;

• medical assistance (purchase of medicine, providing medical consultation and examination);

• assistance to access employment market (developing work-related skills to become a hairdresser, or a manicure specialist, etc.);

• providing clothes and appliances (clothing, baby food, baby care products, household appliances, furniture for children, stationery).

The following methods are used in working with mothers:

  • Tools and competencies of the temporary stay center for mothers and children, including:
    • Adapted technology to work with the case and extended consultations for the development or correction of the support plan designed together with the woman and important people in her life; placing a constant focus of the woman to her life after leaving the center.
    • Development of parental skills (monitoring parent-child interaction, classes, workshops).
    • Rules and penalties for their violation.
    • Sharing house holding issues with other participants of the project (for example, transfer of duties) and conflict resolution.
    • Weekly meetings.
    • Legal support to women migrants.

• Psychosocial interaction with the participants of the project (work dedicated at strengthening family resources, prevention of child abandonment and child abuse, developing techniques to cope with traumatic experience).

• Restoring family ties (including using elements of mediation and working with a network of social contacts).

Ethical principles and values based approach is key in working with the participants of the projects[1]:

  • Zero tolerance to stigma and labeling, embracing and accepting the woman’s values отказ («do not teach how to live»). Woman’s worldview, ethnic and religious traditions, as well as views on education, nutrition, etc. – is their own business. As long as it does not pose a threat to child’s life, the project’s staff do not have the right to impose their point of view on how the woman should rebuild her life.
  • Woman’s voluntary cooperation and engagement into planning proces of her future life, prioritizing woman’s true wishes («we do not impose our point of view, simultaneously we are not their just to make indulge the woman’s wishes»). Relationships between the staff and the woman is a partnership, whereby both are determined to work together to find the best perspectives for the woman’s future.
  • Identifying woman’s strengths and encouraging a proactive approach («we see the best and encourage it»). Identification and support of woman’s strenghts is a very important objective for the staff which allows to maximise woman’s resources and share responsibilities for her future life. 
  • Case-management and team work («we do not provide separate services»). Family work is based on a case-management method which implies a plan to tackle challenging life conditions. The plan is designed and implemented by the client together with a case lead, a project coordinator (and/or a programme coordinator), a therapist, a lawyer, and other staff involved in the case. This method is a flexible and personalised approach towards resolving the most pressing issues for the family, and providing the support which is needed most to get over the challenging situation and get back to an independent life. «Case-management» based on the client and staff’s team work is the most advanced method of social work which allows to increase its effeciancy. In comparison to «providing social services», which represents a standardized type of support and requires the client to look for various social services, case-management enables the family case lead to become a «guide» who helps to get into grips with different kind of services and support. This is important as the level of social competencies or an actual woman’s social circumstances (e.g. taking care of a newborn) impedes the woman to seek for the benefits which she is entitled to in various local authorities services.
  • Polite, slightly distanced, respectful and supporting attitude («we do not lose our temper and we never choose «favourites»). The programme’s staff treat all women in the same manner. Via conversations, advice, direct support and acting as role-models, staff shall encourage women to prioritize the baby and baby’s security, develop favourable and respectful attitude towards others, industry and self-development. There is zero tolerance towards disrespectful statements against participants of the project, shouting, reproaches and manipulations. 
  • No high expectations («we do not expect a «cinderella» effect and do wait for gratitude»). Participants of the project might come from challenging social background with different values, they might be very reluctant to communication and hard to communicate to. Staff’s background and experience might differ significantly from the life of project’s participants. Staff should take this into consideration when they work with women and do not expect that project’s participants will change radically by the end of the project and will correspond more to their own standards.
  • Right of refusal  («we hear and respect «no»). Participants can alwaus refuse from support or from some specific service.
  • Protection of child’s interests («we do not leave in danger »). The client/participant of the project is the family as a whole, not just family members, this is why the Programme’s staff should be neutral and do not take any sides. However it might happen that adult’s and child’s interest contradict each other, and child’s life and health are jeopardized. In this case, the staff must make every effort to provide security to a child, including the necessity to inform child care services to take measures.
  • Confidentiality («we do not discuss and spread information»). Providing vital support to the family does not mean that the client loses their right to privacy, respect to the boundaries and individual rights. The programme’s staff must keep confidentiality and not circulate information they have learnt during their work with the client, as well make every effort for its protection, excluding the cases when it can be made for the client’s or charity’s good having the written consent by the client. Client’s fulll name and date of birth (only first name and age), contact details and address can’t be disseminated. Client’s medical record (HIV, hepatitis, syphilis, schizophrenia, epilepsy, etc) and their mental/psychological condition (suicide attempts, drug addiction, criminal record) is confidential information. However as soon as this information become known to some of the staff, they should inform all other staff involved in the work with the client.

[1] art.2.2.of the Programme statement «Social orphanhood prevention» of «Volunteers to help orphan children»

Team and partners 

Team

There are six full-time staff (coordinator, therapist, lawyer (part-time), three administrators (work in shifts – one work day followed by two rest days), and six full-time volunteers).

Elena Andreyeva, coordinator coordinator is responsible for the overall coordination of the project (recruitment, maintaining the necessary reporting, maintaining financial and legal documentation, public relations, interaction with donors and partnership organizations, etc.), works with families within the framework of the project (admissions of families in the project, drawing up a work plan and further coordination of work with the family in order to tackle successfully a challenging life situation).

Armina Nersesyan, therapist conducts psychological groups and individual consultations, participates in the development of an individual rehabilitation plan for the family in order to restore their ability to live independently. Also, the therapist gets in touch with client’s relatives and helps to establish relations between them.

Pavel Denisov, lawyer helps the participants of the projects to restore and apply for papers and benefits, solve housing issues, and if necessary, represents their interests in court.

Administrators responsible for admissions and assignment, accounting and control of all material assistance of the center; run the recepion, they meet, register, check in and out the project’s participants, perform the functions of a social worker (doctor appointment), and the functions of a nanny while traveling outside the center in mother’s absence.

Partners

  • partners at the project sites: local government organizations in the field of social orphanhood prevention, social protection, healthcare and education;
  • professional community in the Russian Federation: staff of shelters and crisis centers for mothers with children, including the “Aistenok” inter-regional public organization for assisting families with children in difficult situations (Yekaterinburg); Fund for social support of citizens in difficult situations “Safe Home” (Moscow); Center “Kitezh”, (Moscow and Yaroslavl region);
  • financial partners – project donors: charitable foundations, individuals and organizations, as well as organizations that provide support for goods and services (including the Lifestyle Charitable Fund, Need Help Charity Foundation, VTB Bank, KPMG, ARC Charitable Foundation, Presidential Grants Fund, CAF Philanthropy Support and Development Fund, Charitable Foundation Charitable Fund, Elena and Gennady Timchenko Charitable Foundation, Absolut-Help Charity Fund, Absolut Bank, Danone, Aqualife, «Globus» supermarket chain).

Resources

Financial resources

Budget of the project in 2018 – 4 651 040 roubles.

a.         salaries2 569 160 roubles
b.         centre rent and utilities expenses1 228 833 roubles
c.         Internet11 880 roubles
d.         healthcare expenses180 000 roubles
e.         food, child care products, household chemicals, medicine, travel expenses (commute + tickets to the country of origin), financial assistance, nanny fees (in case of mother’s departure and her inability to take the child)  530 000 roubles
Total:4 519 873 roubles

Human resources

There are six full-time staff (coordinator, therapist, lawyer (part-time), three administrators (work in shifts – one work day followed by two rest days), and six full-time volunteers).

“During the first year of my work, I was very worried about each mother and her child who would leave, I worried how would live, where they would go with their children? When they first come, they feel so lost, they have only a small bag in their hands or anything at all. During the project, they are provided with everything they need – clothes, hygiene items, toys for children … And now, after three years of working in the house, I understand that every mother comes as an experienced person with her own story … and the Warm Home is important to them during this particular period of their life, as a warm, friendly place where they can rest, receive help, recover and live on, and count on their strengths. Moms come back to life, you can read “I can!” in their eyes, and they leave having many plans for the future. And we all stay in touch with them, they call us and share what they are up to. They understand that, if they need, they can seek advice and help even beyond their current home. Not just a public hotline, but getting in touch with thosse people who they already know well and trust.”

Natalya Yurukovskaya, administrator of Warm Home

Achieved results

Immediate results:

Since the start of the project in 2011, 91 mothers with 101 children have lived in the center. 90% of these children now live with their mothers.

In 2018, 10 families (10 mothers and 12 children) lived in the Warm Home, of which four families graduated and began to live independently, but one family had to return to the center due to a child’s illness. This is below the target, as several mothers and children had serious health problems that prevented them from leaving they feel better.

In 2018, 9 people from 6 organizations (from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Perm, Rostov, Khabarovsk, Magnitogorsk, Ulyanovsk, and the Krasnoyarsk Territory) had an internship “Basic principles of a crisis center” at the project site.

Social results:

Children that were almost abandoned, remain in their own family. Both mothers and children’s lives change drastically: women escape such trauma as child abandonment, children grow up in a family, not in an orphanage. Life in an orphanage leads to a high probability that, having matured, these children follow their families’ suit. Eventually, the Warm Home breaks the vicious circle where generations of families have been trapped.

Warm Home employees have created and constantly update / expand the list of shelters and crisis centers for mothers with children. Potential beneficiaries are not disregarded, but signposted to specialized organizations (for example, to shelters and crisis centers situated in the ares of their permanent address).

The organisation shares its approaches and knowledge with specialists who work with families at risk throughout Russia, which indirectly helps to reduce child abandonment. The Warm Home Center is an internship platform for specialists who work with families at risk. In partnership with the Aistenok Interregional Public Organization for Assisting Families with Children in Difficult Situations, regular conferences “Save the Family for the Child” are organised, aimed at social shelters and crisis centers for mothers with children, where project staff act as presenters and participants in workshops and supervision (five conferences have been held since 2013).

Social effect

Social effect of the project is social orphanhood prevention in the long term.

  • When the participants finish the «Warm Home» project, they live independently with their child. «Independent living» is any type of life beyond social care services, including reunion with relatives; cooperation of two mothers and a joint exit from the Warm Home to rented accommodation. Social effect sustainability is achieved by the work aimed at encouraging migrant mothers with children to return to the country of their origin (where they can apply for access to free housing, medicine and other resources) and to provide mothers of the Russian Federation with housing or social housing (if they are entitled to).
  •  The child in the birth family is safe, and their basic needs are met. Social effect sustainability is achieved by risk and family’s resources assessment, focusing on social results such as development of parent-child relationships and providing access to medical care.
Internal project assessment:

The «Warm Home» developed its monitoring and evaluation system in 2017 within the programme «Monitoring and evaluation in social orphanhood: online portal, expert support, inspiring cases» (PION) implemented by the non-governmental organisation “Evolution and Philanthropy”[1].  Since 2017, one staff member has been responsible for monitoring and evaluation of the project.

Monitoring and evaluation of the programme comprises the following elements:

1. Collection, storage and analysis of data on the immediate results of activities (the number of services provided, beneficiaries, etc.)

• socio-demographic information (age, citizenship, education, profession, number of children, mental features of a mother or children, actual problems when entering a shelter; risks for a child);

  • quantitative data on the families:
  • number of women living in the Center during the reporting period;
  • number of children living in the Center during the reporting period;
  • duration of stay in the Center;
  • number of «graduations» from the Center;
  • financial and non-financial material assistance (cloths, food, hygiene and household products, fees for the first month of rent after graduation from the Center, etc.);
  • number of individual therapy consultations;
  • number of group therapy consultations;
  • number of individual legal advice;
  • number of consultations with families;
  • number of medical services provided to mothers and children;
  • application for / restoration of papers;
  • application for benefits;
  • accompaniment to government and other services;
  • support after graduation;
  • number of families raising their children independently after leaving the Center.
  • qualitative data on the families:
  • having an option to graduate from the Center;
  • completed individual plan key objectives to overcome a challenging life situation;
  • proportion of individual plans drawn up by the end of 2 weeks of stay in the Warm Home;
  • proportion of mothers to all Center’s residents who participate in daily support planning activities;
  • proportion of additional therapy consultations initiated by women in comparison to all consultations / group sessions with a therapist;
  • a share of completed tasks set out in individual plans;
  • an increase in the number of walks with a child in the fresh air on mother’s own initiative;
  • proportion of mothers who have had positive change (increasing the score by 1 point or more) in following parameters: sensitivity, control and conflict, anticipation, emotional warmth, and stress management;
  • proportion of families who have restored papers, to the total number of families who have not had papers when joining the Center;
  • proportion of mothers who reconnected with their families/social circles, from all Center residents.

2. Collection, storage and analysis of data on the achievement of social outcomes – real change in the lives of beneficiaries.

Soical outcomes for every participant

Short-term

  • An effecient individual plan is drawn up.
  • A map of social contacts/networks is compiled.
  • Mother formulates the image of the desired future.
  • Trust in employees and willingness to seek advice or help.
  • Mother interact with the child.
  • Children receive regular medical care.
  • The lawyer has full information about the participant’s situation.
  • Mother understands well her challenges.
  • All household records and planning are conducted with the participation of mothers.

Medium-term

  • Objectives in the plan are completed.
  • Reconnection with relatives or friends.
  • Pro-Active approach towards changing the situation
  • Mothers take care of their physical and emotional state.
  • Improved parent-child interaction (eg, sensitivity).
  • Breastfeeding practice.
  • Mothers are aware of child’s need for medical care and follow recommendations.
  • Mother and child have a full pack of papers. Mothers have applied for all benefits they are entitled to.
  • Mothers know their material needs and the needs of their child.

Long-term

  • Mother lives independently (beyond a shelter).
  • Mother takes care of the child.
  • The child lives in safety, their basic needs are met.

3. Procedures to ensure the quality of work (making optimal decisions, adhering to work standards)

  • o   Supervisions and intervisions (for project experts)
    • Regular support to administrators by the project’s coordinator and therapist (supervision, meetings, training).

4. Feedback from participants (satisfaction with the charity’s work and services, suggestions to improve the work, etc)

  • Collecting feedback from participants during the discussion of difficulties, wishes and suggestions at the weekly meetings of employees and clients
    • Interviews with participants leaving the Warm Home
    • Assessment of factors of a safe environment in the “Warm Home” with the participation of participants (autumn 2019)

[1] Description of the programme «Monitoring and evaluation in social orphanhood: online portal, expert support, inspiring cases» (PION) https://ep.org.ru/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/%D1%81%D0%B1%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA_interactive.pdf

«The indicator «The proportion of additional therapy consultations initiated by women in comparison to all consultations with a therapist» turned out to be interesting. It was 40% when we first calculated this figure in 2017 (as the average of shares in all consultations). It was not possible to find other data for comparison, but intuitively the figure seemed very large – after all, our participants were looking for a place to live, not a therapist, and they usually had not had the experience that therapist support might help.
There were only two women who did not initiate any additional consultations, but as they were not living ine Center for long at the point of evaluation they had only one or two planned sessions. However many would be «catching» the therapist with an elaborated request and initiated all consultations following their own needs and wishes. In 2018, this proportion was at the same level. It seems that we really manage to make therapist support accessible and establish a good therapeutic alliance.
But another indicator – also quite “therapist” at its core – did not appear to be effecient. We set an ambitious goal to assess changes in the ability to take care of themselves, and as an indirect indicator we decided to take the number of walks. When people live in extreme poverty, they are not used to having a walk just for the sake of pleasure and benefit — they have a lot of work to do, it might be very cold, and they do not have clothes warm enough, and it is just not clear where to go. If we saw that the number of walks is growing, this would be an indicator of a “reset” in relation to their free time. But it was extremely inconvenient for administrators to constantly count walks, and divide them into walks “for business” and “for the soul” (although all employees were enthusiastic about collecting other kind of data). Therefore, we simply refused from this indicator. ” .

Tatyana Archakova, methodologist-therapist
External project assessment:

An external audit of the organisation’s financial activities is carried out annually by an external organization. References to Audit Statements

https://www.otkazniki.ru/reports/yearly/. In 2018, it was conducted by «Image Contact Audit LLC».

Challenges and solutions

The project’s unique advantage is the combination of practical work with beneficiaries and a large amount of methodological work (development of a monitoring and evaluation system, development and testing of new technologies and working methods). Methodical work, in turn, helps to improve practice.

Most aspects of the “Warm Home” activity (the system of rules and support, algorithms for conducting consultations, the model of therapist’s work) have been developed by the organisation, which have been improved during discussions and supervision following the accumulated experience. When the project started, the staff relied on the expertise of Russian colleagues who already had experience in providing similar services – the shelter apartment of the Aistenok NGO (Yekaterinburg) and the Maternity Protection Center “Cradle” (Ivanovo), the crisis center for women “Little Mother” (St. Petersburg). The charity staff took internships at municipal Maternal Homes in France and their practices were also taken into account.

The project’s interventions listed below have been largely adapted by international practices with proven effectiveness (for example, motivational interviewing[1], the programme “Mellow Parenting”[2], NOXA[3] models for counseling violent offenders in family relationships) or innovative developments of the project staff. From the program “Mature Parenthood” (Great Britain), “Warm Home” uses the principles of monitoring parent-child interaction and video feedback, as well as some ideas for club activities. For a number of reasons, despite the attempts to adapt the “Mature Parenthood” programme with the support of its author K. Packing, the holistic training program turned out to be unsuitable due to the temporary period of stay in the residence center, as the original programme’s target audience are mothers living independently. The programme “Mature parenthood” is also used by a number of organizations in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. The NOXA model was originally developed in Norway to work with men who commit domestic violence. The charity’s staff studied this model at the Center «Alternative to Violence» («Men of the 21st Century», St. Petersburg) and adapted it to work with similar problems in parent-child relationships together with their coaches.

The charity’s staff have published a number of textbooks based on the expertise developed during the project[4].

The project team developed a number of documents and templates which are currently used in the work of similar centers and organizations throughout Russia – they facilitate administrative procedures and enables efficient monitoring and evaluation.

  • Policies and Procedures of “Warm Home” (step by step algorithm)
  • Analytical report of working with participants
  • Group psychological work
  • Customer agreement
  • Additional agreement to the contract
  • Charity Donation Agreement
  • Job descriptions of administrator, coordinator, therapist, social worker
  • Contractor agreement with the administrator
  • Journal of consultation
  • Meeting Journal
  • Workshop Book
  • Application for admission to the «Warm Home»
  • Application for leaving the «Warm Home»
  • Application for financial assistance
  • Individual legal work
  • Individual therapy work
  • Guidelines for volunteers
  • Norms of hand-outs from the charity’s warehouses
  • Description of the «Warm Home» project
  • Initial Leaving Report
  • Assessment of families’ needs, risks and resources
  • Non-disclosure obligation (signed by the participant)
  • General fire safety rules
  • Room Description
  • Provision of clothing
  • Participant memo
  • Plan template for Overcoming challenging life situations
  • Rules of stay in the “Warm House”
  • Help and Assistance after leaving the Center
  • «Warm Home» Statement
  • Recommendations for the media
  • Consent to video surveillance
  • Consent to processing of personal data
  • Non-disclosure agreement (signed by employees)
  • Remarks and recommendations table

[1] Motivational Interviewing (building contact and interaction with the client, taking into account their stage of readiness for change; supporting their own motivation) Miller W. R., Rollnick S. “Motivational Interviewing: How to Help People Change” – Moscow, «Э» Publish House, 2017

Silovsky, J., Leffingwell, T. R., & Hecht, D. B. Integrating motivational interviewing into home-based child maltreatment prevention and family preservation services. ” The journal “Family Psychology and Family Therapy”. 2013. No1. pp. 85-104;

Davis L. “Motivational interviews, child abuse and violence in marital relationships: challenges and opportunities (commentary).” The journal “Family Psychology and Family Therapy”. 2013. No1. pp. 105-109

[2] The program “Mature Parenting” (Mellow Parenting) to develop parental competencies and improve parent-child interaction in mothers with children aged from 0 to 1 and from 1 to 5. The British program with proven effectiveness, adapted in the Russian Federation and other post-Soviet countries (Tajikistan, Moldova).

[3] NOXA model of work with violent offenders (adapted to situations of parents’ abuse of children) “Family and domestic violence. Practice of counseling men – perpetrators of domestic violence.” Textbook / Ed. N. M. Platonova. SPb .: SPbGIPSR, 2013 Morozova V., Lukovitskaya E. Literature review “Art therapy in working with violence and aggression”

[4] The algorithm of legal support for migrant women, including those who have lost their papers (sections “Working with migrant mothers” and “The procedure for restoring lost papers by CIS countries citizens in diplomatic and consular agencies in the Russian Federation”) in the manual “Prevention of social orphanhood: practical recommendations for specialists. – M .: Charitable Foundation “Volunteers to Help Orphan Children”, 2013. https://otkazniki.ru/datas/metodichki/book_4_book_3_models_social_uchastiya_for_spescialist.pdf)

• Archakova T.O., Kruglenko E.O., Kurchanova Yu.R., Semenova M.A. Different mothers are needed: a single case study of Mellow Parenting // Journal of the Practical Psychologist. – 2014. – No. 2. – pp. 129-143. https://otkazniki.ru/datas/metodichki/Mellow_Parenting_case.pdf

• Puckering C., Mills M., Evans J., Maddox H., Cox E.D. Taking Control: A Single Case Study of Mellow Parenting // Family psychology and family therapy. – 2013. – No. 1. – pp. 66-84. (Translation into Russian was made by volunteers Ekaterina and Tatyana Velikikh edited by Tatyana Archakova). https://otkazniki.ru/datas/metodichki/Mellow_Parenting_Puckering_et_al.pdf

• Experience in implementing the programme “Mellow Parenting” in the context of Russian standards and culture. Extended text of publication T. Archakova “Mellow Parenting” // Homeless. – 2014. – No. 5. – pp. 40-41 in the author’s edition. https://otkazniki.ru/datas/metodichki/Mellow_Parenting_experience_fulltext.pdf

«One of the biggest challenges was a constant effort to ensure we have enough time. I think this is a universal problem. It worked best in early summer, when we were able to afford having weekly meetings. The summer holiday season and the beginning of the school year were difficult for us. Another challenge is conceptual. It was necessary to develop indicators, in fact, for the results of creating a home environment. On the other hand, we have a number of results and indicators related to improvements in the lives of mothers and children. They are clear in their own right, but it was difficult to combine individual indicators of families into total indicators of the project. At the same time, cross-sectional study was unsuitable, because mothers of the «Warm Home» lived in the Center for different periods of time: for one dat, for a month and six months.

Solutions: «The most striking insight was when we asked the administrator to join the first meeting and make a list of the tasks that she performs. She had quite an emotional outburst: “I didn’t know that I am doing so much! And that it affects so many other things! And sometimes it seemed to me that I’m not an important element to the project. ” We tried to measure the level of conflict, because we have people who ended up in the Warm Home by coincidence, but all of them have traumatic experience which impedes them to communicate constructively. On the one hand, we are working to reduce conflicts, and on the other hand, we are influencing the “old ones” to come out and the “new ones” to appear. And these “new ones” bring with them the potential for conflict: they are grouping in a new way, creating some kind of alliances. It turns out that we create the ground for conflict with our entire project, and then we try to smooth it out, and this is an endless cycle. We came up with a lot of conflict indicators and then got rid of them as they did not have meaningful validity and could not reflect the quality of this work.»

Tatyana Archakova, therapist-methodologist

“It turned out quite interesting with the therapy work. The main areas that our therapist works on are building affection and parent-child relationships, and it is rather difficult to see the impact of this work. At first, we wanted to divide women into narrow categories (increased levels of depression, anxiety or conflict), but in the process of creating a monitoring system we realized that we should not do this. For example, there was an idea to create an indicator about depression: whether its level was supposed to decrease as a result of our work, but it turned out to be not indicative. There were very few such women over the years of our work, although we thought that there were many more. It was important to filter out the indicators and understand that everything that we do in the framework of the project, in fact, affects the final result. The women living in the «Warm Home» contribute to helping the project run, they make applications for clothes, go to the store, and calculate the required number of products. And all this serves a purpose. It has an impact on their ability to plan, to build their own life and their budget in the future. This is important for independent living with a child. ”

Elena Andreeva, project coordinator «Warm Home»

Plans of further development   

Strategic plan of the project until 2021 includes the following:

  1. Building relationships with state authorities of the Moscow Region in order to lease a plot of land for the construction of the temporary stay center.
  2. Construction of the building, which will provide a temporary stay for 16 women with 16 to 20 children, a half-day nursery children and a social center.
  3. As soon as the new Center is built, it will host a social center which provides legal, psychological and non-financial in-kind assistance to families living in the district. This center will have capacity to serve from 30 to 50 families per year.
  1. As soon as the new Center is built, additional areas of work will be explored: assistance to women and children affected by domestic violence, assistance to families with children in the early years, opening of a unit for shared living for families where parents have learning disabilities or difficulties.
 2018Plan for 2021
Number of beneficiaries10 families, 12 children16 families, 16 – 20 children (orphanage) 30 – 50 families (social center)
Number of staff 1 coordinator-therapist, 1 therapist, lawyer (25% part-time) 3 administrators 1  coordinator-therapist , chil and adult therapist (50% part-time each) lawyer (50% part-time) 3  administrators social worker teacher teacher assistant  
Number of volunteers4 volunteers with a vehicle 1 volunteer for refurbishment8 транспортных волонтера 2 помощника по ремонту 2 специалиста по грудному вскармливанию 2 ведущих мастер-классов
Budget4,5 million roubles8,3 million roubles

Recommendations

The charity provides recommendations on specific requests of third-party organizations, each recommendation is given individually according to the request.

Project’s documents

  • Programme policy «Social orphanhood prevention» Charitable organisation «Volunteers to help orphan children» 15 January 2014
  • Annual report of the Charitable organisation «Volunteers to help orphan children», pages 12-13 https://otkazniki.ru/upload/iblock/743/743f5872148daadfe1f1b7a95aa03605.pdf
  • Evolution and philanthropy, 2017 г. “Monitoring and evaluation in social orphanhood: online portal, expert support, inspiring cases», p. 54-65

http://ep.org.ru/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/%D1%81%D0%B1%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA_interactive.pdf

Publications of the project

06.04.2018 News – Video on the «Warm Home» project starts at 4.50. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjyNyMoG-zY

10.05.2018 News – Russian and foreign centres for mothers and their children will gather in Yekaterinburg.

https://www.otkazniki.ru/events/news/v-ekaterinburge-soberutsya-predstaviteli-rossiyskikh-i-zarubezhnykh-priyutov-dlya-mam-s-detmi

15.05.2018  Dochki-materi. Philantrhopist media. http://special.philanthropy.ru/otkazniki

08.07.2018 Keep the family: stories of five women who did not abandon their children  https://www.otkazniki.ru/events/histories/sokhranit-semyu-pyat-istoriy-zhenshchin-kotorye-ne-otkazalis-ot-svoikh-detey/

18.10.2018 «Warm Home» case study in the framework of the project «Development of social welfare charities: evidence base in soical projects».  http://ep.org.ru/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/%D0%92%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%8B.pdf

20.11.2018 Trips with a meaning: internships to develop charity staff’s competencies. Philanthropist. https://philanthropy.ru/novosti-organizatsij/2018/11/20/69018/

29.11.2018 Evidence-based good. Philanthropist media. https://philanthropy.ru/analysis/2018/11/29/69561/

1.11.2018 “How to find support at work”, СиД с. 33-35, http://deti.timchenkofoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/%D0%96%D1%83%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%BB-%D0%A1%D0%B8%D0%94_3-2018.pdf

24.12.2018 Mother or an orphanage? Radio «Teos» https://www.facebook.com/otkazniki.ru/videos/215988592675185/

05.03.2019 Marry a sadist. Three stories of seemingly successful women RIA. Novosti https://ria.ru/20190305/1551553996.html?fbclid=IwAR2ii0WOLl4ttJLVX1tMYT9iumo8l7S7KqTCOlMSCnstzh1k9Wg0JRlPZzU