Capacity building of the newly established Probation State Service (PSS) in Armenia envisaged within the AM CALLS Community Grants component is in the process.
Between 22-24, 2016 a training session on “Sustainable Parents’ Clubs” was organized for 15 parents from the parents’ clubs established by the 5 grantee organizations, 5 regional representatives and 5 grantee organization representatives: a total of 25 participants.
On May 13, 2016 representatives from Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) visited “Family and Community” NGO in Metsamor to observe the community initiatives within the INL funded AM CALLS project
AM CALLS staff is making regular monitoring visits to the six communities by providing close oversight and guidance in the process of implementation of small grants. As establishment of Parents’ Clubs was a mandatory component of the projects, AM staff encouraged the grantees to recruit parents who are enthusiastic and open to new initiatives, with sense of community ownership and are willing to allocate time and efforts for that initiative. While recruiting the parents the grantees also considered the status of the family. Thus, women from disadvantaged families with youth at risk were particularly encouraged to participate.
To promote capacity building and parenting skills of the parents involved in the Parents’ Clubs, a Resource Kit was developed by the identified 4 experts. Six copies of the Resource Kit were published and distributed to the six NGOs to pilot and assess the effectiveness of the tools included in the Tools Kit. The NGO representatives were asked to provide their feedback on the usefulness of the Resource Kit during the presentation of the Resource Kit which took place on March 11, 2016.
During its 5-day study visit to the U.S. the group of Armenian professionals had three workshops on the use and administration of YASI, led and facilitated by Jonathan Kidde, the Founder and Manager of Green Omega, his company that provides training technical assistance around restorative justice and effective intervention.
On April 10th a group of six Armenian professionals and two PH staff visited Vermont to learn more about the Youth Assessment and Screening Tool (YASI), to study its usage and administration.
On April 15th, as part of their travel to Vermont the group of Armenian professionals, participating in an exchange program to the U.S. visited South Burlington High School․
From January 26-30, 2016 within the AM CALLS program two US experts, Brian Williams, Assistant Principal of Burlington high school, former Principal of Burlington Sustainable Academy and Jason Lawson, SRO Program Supervisor in Burlington Police Department were invited to Armenia to share their effective experience on School Resource Officer (SRO) program.
“Offenders' Rehabilitation Center” State Non-Commercial Organization of the RA Ministry of Justice (MoJ), based on the positive experience of Parents’ Clubs established at the Abovyan penitentiary within the 2014-2015 AM CALLS project , plans to duplicate that initiative by establishing Parents’ Clubs at Alternative Sanctions Departments in Yerevan and Vanadzor which will promote development of positive parenting skills among female inmates and decrease cases of violence by parents towards their children.
Over Twenty Syrian- Armenian women participated in the training organized in Yerevan by the two trainers who had recently completed training in “Non-Violent Parenting and Conflict Resolution” within the AM CALLS project. This initiative was the basis for an effective collaboration between “Save the Children” working with Syrian Armenians and PH International staff.
On March 9, within the AM CALLS project, the “Offenders' Rehabilitation Center” State Non-Commercial Organization of the RA Ministry of Justice (MoJ) organized an event called “Motherhood and Childhood” at the Abovyan penitentiary where female convicts carry out their sentence. During the event, over ten children arrived to the penitentiary from different regions of Armenia to meet their mothers and celebrate International Women’s Day with their mothers.
