The first “Family Home” in Ukraine has opened in Boryspil, Kyiv region. It is a home where orphans and children deprived of parental care who have not yet been placed with a family can live in conditions as close to family life as possible.
The new service was presented with the participation of First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska, Minister of Social Policy, Family and Unity Denys Uliutin, representatives of the State Service of Ukraine for Children, the Coordination Center for the Development of Family Upbringing and Child Care, the Kyiv Regional Military Administration, and the Boryspil community.
“The ‘Family Home’ is one of the elements of the broader transformation of the child protection system that we are building in Ukraine today. We want the system to have different tools for different situations in a child’s life, but for all of them to work toward the same goal – preserving or restoring a family environment and gradually moving away from institutional care as the state’s standard response,” said Minister of Social Policy, Family and Unity Denys Uliutin.
The “Family Home” is being introduced as a two-year state pilot project in 12 regions of Ukraine. It is intended to allow the new model to be tested in practice and lay the groundwork for scaling it up further.
The Olena Zelenska Foundation has joined the implementation of the new service and funded the construction of the first two “Family Homes” in the Kyiv and Chernivtsi regions. The construction was made possible with the support of the government of the United Arab Emirates.
“Ukraine has taken the European path of moving away from traditional residential institutions. And we remain committed to ensuring that every child has a family. The ‘Family Home’ is not a substitute for a family – the search for one continues. But it is no longer an institution, either. It is a real home, where there should be enough attention for every child and space for every child to be free,” said the First Lady.
After the presentation, Olena Zelenska visited the first “Family Home” in Boryspil and met its residents: Liza, Nazarii, Dmytro, Mariia, and Mykhailo. Most of them spent a significant part of their childhood in institutions. They talked about school, their interests, and their plans.
The Foundation based the project for the first “Family Home” on an already developed house design from the “Room for Childhood” initiative and adapted it to the new format and the needs of different children. The house is fully barrier-free and energy-efficient, furnished and equipped with all the necessary appliances, and includes private space for the children, shared areas, and a shelter.