Country: Georgia
Closing date: 30 Oct 2017
Terms of Reference: Art therapy skills for CDC and specialized schools’ staff
1.Program Context in Abkhazia
The situation of children in Abkhazia is heavily affected by the consequences of the 1992-93 war and the protracted conflict, including the more than 20 years of international isolation of the region. Due to dilapidated infrastructure, inadequate capacities of professional staff and lack of budget means, children in Abkhazia today receive basic services considerably inferior to those enjoyed by their parents’ generation a few decades ago.
Over the last years, UNICEF and its partners have been working with local communities in Abkhazia to improve access to basic health, education and other social services for the most vulnerable populations in returnee and remote rural areas. As a result of this initiative, medical, pre-school, youth and other basic social services for children and women were strengthened in the 48 chosen communities and for an estimated half of Abkhazia’s registered children with disabilities.
In July 2015, UNICEF and World Vision got funding for the “Strengthening and Developing Basic Social Services for Children in Abkhazia” project which will last for 30 months. The project is implemented as collaborative effort of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Vision International, funded by the Swedish International Development and Cooperation Agency (Sida). Within this project UNICEF and World Vision continue efforts on improving quality of the basic social services for children, on strengthening social work in Abkhazia and in general on supporting the positive social change in Abkhazia.
Based on the fact that services were inexistent for children with disabilities (CWD), WV supported the set-up of three Children Development Centres (CDCs) to ensure an access to the services CWD (aged 1-18 years old) need. All the three CDCs have multi-disciplinary teams proposing a comprehensive set of rehabilitation services to children living with disabilities and to their families. The CDCs’ specialists received a capacity building support from the project (via engagement of international experts) to enhance their technical knowledge and counselling skills.
The Child Development Centers (CDCs) became the main service providers for children with disabilities in Abkhazia. They have not only raised their own awareness about all aspects of disability and services for children with disabilities, but have also significantly increased their technical knowledge and skills. The quality of the CDC services has been strengthened over the years through the introduction of new concepts. Furthermore, the centers have started to enhance their coordination and put in place a common vision and a joint strategic plan for the coming years with regular technical and coordination meetings.
All the three Centers are composed of a variety of specialists ensuring that a comprehensive set of services is provided to children living with disabilities including physical, psycho-social, speech therapy as well as education and life skills classes (computer). On average 10 staff working in each of the Centers.
Acknowledging the work of the project target CDCs and existing needs for this kind of services, the Ministry of Health opened a new similar Center in Sukhum. In order to ensure that the new Center renders not only a medical approach (providing medical services to children with disabilities) but a social one that aims for a social integration of children with disabilities, WV organized a series of capacity building workshops for the personnel of the Sukhum CDC and representatives of the df Ministry of Social Affairs.
Moreover, as a result of a joint advocacy campaign organized by the Child Development Centers and involving other various actors, the three project target CDCs have been shifted under a supervision by the df Ministry of Social Affairs and inclusion of the CDCs’ running costs into the state budget coverage.
Under the previous engaged consultancies which took place throughout 2014 – 2017, the following major achievements were done:
The project target three Child Development Centers (CDCs) developed a joint StrategicDevelopmentPlan to ensure a promotion of concept of social integration, a greater visibility of the Centers’ work, and including a three year sustainability plan;
A detailed three year WorkPlan is developed individually for each of the three CDCs;
Specialists from the three target CDCs were trained on the Portage support model for children and families including knowledge and skills for early disability identification and intervention;
The project target three CDCs trained on how to develop IndividualDevelopmentPlans for the children they serve;
Training on Psycho-social approaches and support techniques for the CDCs’ staff to deliver a proper psychological and social support to the target CWD and their families.
2.Objective of the Consultancy
Art therapy is a way for people to deal with the feelings and pain they have due to mental illness, trauma, physical illness, and disabilities in a healthy and expressive way. It is typically a combination of counseling and expression in art. Art therapy has become a key piece of therapy for many because it enables people to use colors, movement, and other expressive techniques to show how they are feeling, and is especially useful for people who are struggling to find words for their feelings. Children in particular may benefit from art therapy because it can be hard for young children to articulate their feelings using language.
To complement the set of skills of the CDCs specialists and to enhance the quality of services rendered by the CDCs, a training on basic skills on Art Therapy will be provided to the CDCs specialists. Teachers from special schools and representatives from the df Ministry of Social Affairs will be invited to the training as well. art therapy skills are essential for quality support to children with disabilities to promote personal development, increase coping skills, and enhance cognitive function.
The current consultancy will focus on providing both technical and on-job training to the target specialists to learn art therapy skills and further enhance their professional skills when working with children with disabilities.
Inter alia the project teams (both WV and Project Partner) will be participating in the training sessions to build their capacity on art therapy skills. This will empower the project teams to ensure a quality monitoring of this project activity and in case of need to replicate the same sessions for other non-professionals.
3.Key Outputs and Methodology
The Consultant shall:
Design a Training Program for 4 CDC staff, staff of specialized schools and representatives of the df Ministry of Social Affairs on implementation of basic art therapy techniques in their daily activities. Develop pre & posttests, monitoring tools, relevant guidelines on art therapy (summarized presentations & handouts) and hand them over to the project team.
Deliver the agreed set of sessions for the target group (staff of the four CDCs, the staff of specialized schools, and representatives of the df Ministry of Social Affairs), 5 training days, total number of trainees is 20.
Produce a Visit Report reflecting on the main achievements, challenges, recommendations in relation to the capacity building of the target group of trainees.
In terms of the Methodology of the consultancy related assignments, the Consultant shall:
· Work with WV Regional Office to agree on any technical issues related to development of the Training Program and approaches to be used that take into considerations the specific operating context of Abkhazia. The contact person for that is Viktoria Sargsyan, the Health Learning Hub Leader.
3.Qualifications and Experience Required
The consultant shall have:
Ø Strong technical experience in Art therapy approaches
Ø Strong awareness on disability and how to interact with children with disabilities
Ø Strong experience in conducting training including the ToT component
Ø Relevant university degree
Ø Ability to work independently with little direction
Ø Strong English communication (oral and written), Russian knowledge preferable
Ø Cross-cultural sensitivity, flexible world view and emotional maturity
Ø Willingness and ability to travel to Abkhazia, interact with staff, community and primary/secondary stakeholders
Ø Relevant computer skills necessary to execute well-designed, professional documents
Timeframe:
The consultancy is expected to be conducted in **November, 2017 for seven and a half days in total.
Approximate Time Commitment
Design of the Training Program - 1 Day – Home-based
On-site preparations to the training - 0.5 Day – In Country
Delivering of training for staff of the four CDCs, staff of specialized schools – 20 participants - 5 days -
In country
Development and provision of Final Report on the consultancy visit - 1 day - Home based
TOTAL TRAVEL DAYS - 3 DAYS
TOTAL DAYS IN-COUNTRY - 5,5 DAYS
TOTAL DAYS CONSULTANCY FROM HOME BASE - 2 DAYSTOTAL DAYS CONSULTANCY OVERALL - 7,5 DAYS
Consultancy Cost Coverage:
The consultancy has a lump sum budget in USD and any incurring expenses should be covered by it. The consultant is responsible for budget breakdown for particular activities within the submitted offer. Abkhazia Program Team will provide only logistical support and transportation for field work within Abkhazia.
How to apply:
Required Documents for Bid:
· Legal registration/certification (if available)
· CV (Curriculum Vita) with Business questionnaire (attached)
· Proposed budget Breakdown with Work Timeline Submission Guidelines:
· All costs should be input in USD
· Bid Submission is due by 30 October 2017
· Questions should be emailed directly to: Khanifa_Otyrba@wvi.org, Micheline_ekmekjian@@wvi.org,
· Final submission should be emailed directly to: Khanifa_Otyrba@wvi.org, Micheline_ekmekjian@@wvi.org,