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KWU continues promotion and implementation of coaching ideas in Kherson and Kherson Oblast.

Coaching is an important social institution that is built on the transfer of people’s experience and wisdoms of life to young people. That is, professional skills, ability to build a career, rationally organize adult life are passed from a coach to protégé. In families, this is, first and foremost, guiding from parents-grandparents-great-grandparents, aunts’, God parents’, elder brothers’ or sisters’ advice. And what should children “with status”, boarders of orphanages and boarding schools do? This question is kept unsolved in Kherson Women Union, which has been implementing pilot projects of the regional coaching program, adapting them to the demands of the latest reforms and realities of our oblast.

Complete rethink of coaching implementation is motivated by the present time. Sad statistics states that due to the absence of self-conception in adult life and qualitative prioritization, orphaned children and children, deprived of parental care, often suffer the same destiny as their hapless parents or even offend against the law.

The program of social coaching “Step by Step” that is being implemented within 2017 – 2018 by CO “KWU” is aimed at the earliest possible start of the preventive work, oriented on personal growth, self-consciousness, development of emotional IQ among boarders of group homes.

On August 27th the authors and executors of the program performed the action-oriented meeting with the specialists on implementation of coaching program – Tetiana Stufford, Vice-President, Head of International Organization KIDSAVE in the Eastern Europe, and Nadiia Kondratyuk, Coordinator of projects KIDSAVE International in order to discuss the further share of program and its reformatting into the project with more action-oriented result – official employment of boarders of official guardianship institutions.

“First of all, children need a coach, not one more educator or supervisor, but a friend – experienced elder friend. They should admire him/her. Only then, this person will become a role model”, stated Tetiana Stufford. In Mrs. Tetiana’s opinion, interactive “field” meetings of a coach and a protégé are able not only to create a relationship of trust, but also contribute the successful implementation of the program in general.

“A coach should be ready to any kind of questions, to midnight calls or even calls every fifteen minutes. It is important to weigh up pros and cons and understand, whether you are ready to become a coach, to comprehend it in time and not to give up on a child’s support afterwards. As even when these children grow up, your thought will be relevant to them”, made emphasis Nadiia Kondratyuk.

“We are here to understand where we should move further. As the year of our coaching program “Step by Step” work, when the best practicing regional psychologists were performing the huge job with children on their adaptation and socialization, has positive results. But we feel that we should move to a new challenge – preparation to the adult life”, shared the Head of KWU Iryna Nikolayeva.

Seminar’s work was boiling. The practicing psychologists, that were engaged in to the program “Step by Step” by KWU, shared their know-how, and the distinguished guests – the best world’s experience.

The results of the first meeting can be summed up as following: this year KWU is going to work with qualitatively new coaching program. The title will be given by children that are getting ready to adult life. The age group of teenagers of 14 – 18 years has been chosen to participate in this program. They are those boarders that are leaving the educational institution in a year or two and should get ready for the independent life outside its walls. Businesses and enterprises of the city will be involved actively and mainly they will become corporative coachers.

The new program of corporate coaching should get the children ready for just 2 years to answer such puzzling questions as what do they do in the future? How to fulfil their potential? How to create a close-knit family?

As the Vice-president, Head of the International Organization KIDSAVE in the Eastern Europe Tetiana Stufford has stated, coachers are people that can infuse hope into forces of their own, that there is nothing impossible! The main aim is to bring these children, whose childhood passed in difficult straits, a message: “Think your dream over, and we will help you to make it come true!”

The workgroup on the corporate coaching program development has already been created; its first meeting took place at Kherson Regional Universal Scientific Library named after Oles Gonchar on August 29th . The skilled psychologists Liudmyla Koliaka, Oksana Ryzhenko, Inessa Sambros, Tetiana Nemenko, Tetiana Shkoliar, Iryna Lytvynenko joined the team. KWU plans to engage city and regional offices of children’s services of Oblast State Administration and the Center of Social Services for Family, Children and Youth into the stage of candidates’ selection.

While the participants of the workgroup are working for the pilot program to start working at the end of September, KWU is going to organize and perform not one meeting with our friends and partners, outstanding people and influential people of the region. We are anxious to create a venue for experience and thoughts sharing, to find and get strong coachers involved in and together bring up a new generation of Kherson folks, successful and confident! These children will look to the future without hesitation, as we, the adults, believe in them!

Translated by Anastasia Kyselyova