In the past months, in addition to the ongoing activities of the ZANG program’s Community Justice Centers (CJC), PH International’s (PHI) Armenia staff worked towards expanding its partnerships to establish new Community Justice Centers. One of such opportunities is through collaboration with the Armenian branch of World Vision International Charitable Organization (WVA). Through cooperative efforts PH International plans to set up 2 more CJCs, one in town of Talin, Aragatsotn region, and the other in Kapan, Syunik region. The new CJCs will be based on the Community Centers for Children years ago established by World Vision, and currently funded by the local municipalities. The Talin CJC will be the first one to open: after some pilot period, PHI and WVA will jointly commence the activities of setting-up the Community Justice Center under the auspices of the Kapan Community Center.
Related to these plans, on March 12-14, PH International brought together the teams of the six ZANG CJCs and the teams of the Talin and Kapan Community Centers to discuss the ongoing activities of the six CJCs and introduce the CJC model to the new team members from Talin and Kapan. The training was also attended by Lala Ghazaryan, Head of Department of Protection of Children, Women and Families, Ministry of Labour and Social Issues, Nelly Duryan, Deputy Head of the Criminal Investigation third Division of the Police of the Republic of Armenia, World Vision staff and juvenile police officers from the regions involved in the CJC activities. At the training the Talin and Kapan Community Centers members were introduced to the Goals and Principal Underpinnings of the ZANG CJCs, the CJC Reparative Board Process and Activities and the Reparative Board Member’s Role and Criteria. The training sessions also included role plays of the CJC reparative board meetings based on real cases from the ZANG CJCs. The training provided the ZANG six CJC team members a nice opportunity to discuss their best practices and challenges and also present their experiences to the new participants.
The training also included a session on OSCE Community Policing Program practices by Community Police Officer Khoren Kasyan. Also, each CJC received a copy of a new manual for Child Protection Specialists offered by UNICEF, jointly produced by UNICEF and COAF.
Overall, the training was characterized by the participants’ active engagement and enthusiasm. Nearly all the participants mentioned that they had found the training very informative and productive. In the coming months, together with the World Vision staff and relevant ministries, PH International will work towards launching of the CJC implementation in Talin and Kapan.
Armenia | 
