The Agency for Private Initiative Development is participating in the implementation of the Project “Strengthening the Capacity of United Territorial Communities in Providing Social Services”. The project is administered at the national level by the charitable foundation “Creative Center “TCK” (Kyiv) and is funded by the Council of Europe.

The purpose of the aforementioned project is: to improve the quality and accessibility of social services for citizens in united territorial communities of Ukraine by strengthening the capacity of local governments and developing infrastructure. The project implementation period covers August - November 2017, and its geography of implementation is 6 united territorial communities of Ivano-Frankivsk region (Kosmatska and Vytvytska AH), Luhansk region (Troitska and Chmyrivska AH) and Kherson region (Chaplynska and Askania-Nova AH).

The objectives of the project are to introduce the practice of dialogue in the social sector of target communities, determine local priorities for the development of the social service system based on the results of studying the needs for such services, promote the professional development of municipal services in the field of social service system management based on engagement, partnership and inter-municipal cooperation, as well as improve the infrastructure for providing social services in six ATCs.

To implement the project tasks, working groups on the development of the social service system were formed and launched in the Vytvytsky and Kosmatsky ATCs, which included deputies and officials of local councils, representatives of social service providers, and representatives of the public.

Also, representatives of target communities participated in the workshop "Organization of social service provision in ATCs under decentralization", which took place on September 8-9 in Kyiv, where they presented their ATCs, their prospects and social problems, and talked with colleagues from other communities and specialists from the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine. Currently, active organizational work is underway in the target communities to ensure that a study of needs for social services is conducted.

The expected results of the project implementation should be the establishment of permanent dialogue working groups in the target ATCs, which would really contribute to increasing the efficiency of social service provision, the identification of needs for social service provision in each community participating in the project based on citizen participation (surveys, focus groups), and the development of a local program for the development of the social service provision system based on the results of the study of such needs.

The project will also allow municipal officials to gain knowledge and skills for practical application in the social sphere. Within the framework of the project, participating communities will also be provided with appropriate equipment and specially developed software for organizing the reception of citizens applying for social services, and citizens will be informed about the possibility of receiving social services. The final result of the project implementation, his team sees, is the introduction of Council of Europe tools for personnel management and good governance into the practice of the activities of self-government bodies of the target communities.

- The undoubted advantage of the project is that the united communities participating in it will get a real chance at the beginning of their life to establish a system of providing social services, doing it correctly and in a modern way, based on a thorough methodological approach provided within the project - says Kyrylo Rubanovsky, the regional coordinator of the project in Ivano-Frankivsk region, ARPI expert on legal issues. - The newly formed ATCs will not only improve their own infrastructure by receiving modern equipment, information materials, and developing or improving their own websites - they will be provided with practical tools to identify real needs in social services and develop a system of such services. It is also very valuable to establish not only a dialogue between stakeholders within communities, but also contacts and cooperation between different AHs - for example, at a seminar-workshop in Kyiv we witnessed the "building of bridges" between the delegation of the Vytvytska AH and their colleagues from Chaplynka, in the Kherson region. Such contacts are undoubtedly strengthening and enriching.