Training seminar of the Penitentiary Initiative

3 September 2009

In the period from 28 to 29 August 2009, a two-day training seminar was held in the urban-type settlement of Kobleve, Mykolaiv Region, which was organised by the Mykolaiv Regional Public Youth Movement “Penitentiary Initiative” within the framework of the project “HIV Prevention and Social-Psychological Support for Vulnerable Groups of Convicts in Penitentiary Institutions of Ukraine”.

The training seminar was attended by deputy heads of institutions for social-educational and psychological work, psychologists of penal institutions, and representatives of NGOs from Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kherson, and Cherkasy regions.

At the very beginning, the project implementation took place in the Olshanske Correctional Colony in Mykolaiv Region, and subsequently spread to the Kazankivka Correctional Colony in the same region.

The training seminar involved an exchange of information on effective methods, strategies, and approaches for organising work on HIV/AIDS prevention in penal institutions and a discussion on social-psychological support for vulnerable groups of convicts.

As European practice shows, broad involvement of psychologists, educators, psychiatrists, and social workers who are not personnel of penal institutions is necessary for the effective resolution of these issues. It is precisely this position, the position of social partnership, that the State Department of Ukraine for the Execution of Sentences holds.

Based on the results of the training seminar, all participants were presented with relevant certificates.

More detailed information on the activities of NGOs in the direction of HIV/AIDS prevention in penal institutions can be found at: www.aidsalliance.org.ua