The Round table on the subject “The interaction of the state and public sector in working with teenagers who practice risky behavior” was held today, 29, May, in Irpin. The event was conducted within the framework of the project “Teenagers are neglected: improving the access to integrated HIV services for vulnerable teenagers in Ukraine”.

The discussion was attended by representatives of the following organizations: the Department of Education and Science of the Irpin City Council, the Irpin City Center for Social Services for Family, Children and Youth, the Office of the Services of Children and Family of the  Irpin City Council, the local police, the project coordinators of the International Charitable Foundation “Alliance for Public Health” and AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW-Ukraine), regional representative of the Ukrainian Institute for Social Research named after O. Yaremenko and the team of the “Convictus Ukraine”.

During the Round table, Alla Melnyk, project manager, presented the preventive work among the teenagers in the city of Irpin, told about the work of the youth club “Street Power”, which successfully operates in Kyiv, and created by the “Convictus Ukraine”.

Iryna Golubyeva, the project coordinator of the International Charitable Foundation “Alliance for Public Health”, informed about the first results of the project “Teenagers are neglected: improving the access to integrated HIV services for vulnerable teenagers in Ukraine”, in particular, focused on the various requests of boys and girls in the cities of Kyiv region.

Iryna Nerubayeva, the project coordinator of the AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW-Ukraine), accented the importance of the community in preventative work with teenagers, emphasized the importance of promoting safe behavior, preventing such phenomena as drug addiction and alcoholism.

Lilia Tarasyuk, Lilia Tarasyuk, the coordinator of the sociological research of the Ukrainian Institute of Social Studies named after O. Yaremenko, conducted a collection of information on the locations of teenagers of risk groups in the city, and told about the first issues faced by interviewers.

Also during the dialogue all participants of the event emphasized the importance of joint actions on providing quality services for teenagers, discussed the mechanism of client redirection and the possibility of coordinating the preventive work.

The project “Teenagers are neglected: improving the access to integrated HIV services for vulnerable teenagers in Ukraine”, is implemented by the All Ukrainian Charitable Organization “Convictus Ukraine” in cooperation with the AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW-Ukraine) and the International Charitable Foundation “Alliance for Public Health”, with the financial support of the Foundation “French International Expertise 5% Initiative”.