Позитивные изменения. Том 3, № 3 (2023). Positive changes. Volume 3, Issue 3 (2023)

THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CHILD ABANDONMENT PREVENTION PRACTICE

In 2016, we initiated the practice of re-establishing kinship ties for children from orphanages. Our efforts involved reconnecting them with their biological relatives, which in some cases resulted in the child returning to their family. However, our work did not stop there. We understood that successful reintegration was essential, and most families required ongoing support.

Gradually, we came to the realization that it was more effective to prevent children from entering orphanages altogether. Thus, in 2018, we started working to prevent social orphanhood. This marked an entirely new direction for our operations, in which we sought inspiration from the experiences of our colleagues and foreign research. With a substantial amount of data in hand, we started to systematize this activity, defining the procedural actions and accompanying documentation.

To expedite the progress, we established a separate project dedicated to formulating the methodology for this direction. We recognized there were existing experts and a wealth of accumulated experience in the sector, which we wanted to take advantage of. We enlisted the assistance of an outside expert in social design, who helped us refine our vision and conducted in-depth interviews with both our team and the beneficiaries. Their guidance was invaluable in shaping the packaging of this new technology. Additionally, we engaged extensively with our colleagues, exchanging experiences, sharing document templates, discussing optimum frequency of visits to families, and exploring the ideal workload for a social pedagogue, among other aspects. Our entire team actively participated in experience exchange meetings and received training as part of this process. This ongoing iterative work resulted in continuous improvement of our day-to-day operations.

This comprehensive approach enabled us to reevaluate and systematize all our activities. As a result, the current description of our child abandonment prevention practice appears as follows:[93]

• Goals;

• Objectives;

• Description of the target audience (beneficiaries);

• Detailed step-by-step description of the work technology: a script for the hotline operator receiving calls, the procedure and addressees to whom the information must be forwarded, how many people should respond to the call and how soon, etc. The average duration of a case (1.5 years) is also prescribed;

• Principles of technology implementation;

• List of services provided;

• Work scenarios;

• Norms for staff in case management;

• Frequency of evaluation and system of metrics;

• Situations in which we stop working with a family (work goals have been achieved, the family refuses to cooperate, or the family moves to another region).

Every step and every metric is substantiated. The result is a set of performance metrics that allow us to determine whether a family has overcome their crisis and whether it possesses sufficient resources to handle their issues independently.

Our scorecard consists of 35 metrics, including the following:

• number of families/parents/children participating in the project;

• number/share of families participating in the project in relation to the districts where they reside;[94]

• the average increase in family well-being;

• dynamics of individual well-being characteristics;

• the volume of counseling services (total/by type/ average per family);

• signals converted into completed cases;

• number of family visits (total/per family/one-off assistance).

After conducting a strategic session in 2019 to adopt a new mission and goal statement, we began to align our practices accordingly, starting with a revision of our organizational structure[95] and an end-to-end KPI system. The KPI system cascades down from the director to the entire staff of the foundation, and includes indicators related to achieving our strategic goals and fulfilling our mission, as well as staff performance indicators by business area, and metrics embedded within our practices.

The same benchmarks can be found in our public semi-annual and annual reports.[96] This ensures the metrics incorporated in our practices are consistently followed throughout the foundation’s work.