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Supporting the Social Service Workforce on the Frontlines of the Refugee Crisis in South East Europe

View the full webinar recording on the Alliance's YouTube channel. 
Download the presentations.

On June 26, 2018, the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance hosted its 26th webinar funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through PEPFAR and the 4Children Project, dedicated to supporting the social service workforce on the frontlines of the refugee and migrant crisis in South East Europe.

Natia Partskhaladze, Senior Technical Advisor of the Alliance, introduced the webinar agenda and provided an overview of the role of the social service workforce in the refugee and migrant crisis response. She has also provided a brief summary of the work of the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance as it relates to strengthening the capacity of the workforce to respond to the needs of the refugees and migrants. Natia then introduced the Alliance’s Call to Action for Strengthening the Social Service Workforce to Better Protect Children and Achieve the SDGs. Individuals and organizations were encouraged to show their support by adding their organization logos and distributing it among stakeholder groups.

Natia introduced the agenda for the webinar and presenters.

Stephanie Delaney, Terre des Hommes Child Protection Consultant, provided a brief overview of Tdh’s work in humanitarian contexts and their approach to capacity building. She introduced Tdh Lausanne and the Child Protection Hub for South East Europe initiative implemented in 2015 with support from the UNICEF Regional Office in Geneva. The purpose of the initiative was to build the capacity of those responding to the refugee and migrant crisis to be able to address child protection concerns within the unique settings of the largely transit countries, in particular Croatia, Serbia and the former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia (tfYROM)

To build capacity, face-to-face trainings complemented by optional webinars covered four core blocks, namely Cultural Sensitivity, Impact of Being a Refugee/Migrant on Children, Working Together for the Benefit of Children, and Safeguarding. These training blocks, which can be run separately in any order can be downloaded from the Child Protection Hub website.

In each targeted country in South East Europe, Tdh worked in cooperation with local partners. Aleksandar Mitanoski, a social worker from International Open Gate La Strada, a Macedonian partner of Tdh, talked about the situation from the field in Macedonia and his personal experience of working with the refugees and migrants and benefiting from the Tdh initiative. He shared some of the challenges in working with refugees who were transiting through Macedonia rapidly. He also highlighted many of the lessons learned in the provision of services and supporting the workforce.

After the presentations, the speakers responded to the questions posed by the participants. Nicole Brown, the Alliance Communications Manager, summarized the webinar and encouraged participants to share information about the relevant events. She invited participants to join the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance.

The full webinar recording and presentations are available for download.

 

 


Please visit www.socialserviceworkforce.org/webinars to learn more about this webinar series and to access the series’ archives.

This webinar series is supported by: USAID, PEPFAR and 4Children