Innovation: Working with Communities to Strengthen Service
Belarus
AAI Domains:
Participation in society (voluntary activities, social connectedness)
Independent, healthy and secure living (care to children, access to health services, lifelong learning)
Belarus is neither as open or economically reformed as other eastern European states and has experienced serious economic and social challenges in the post-Soviet Union period of transition. While the Belarusian Red Cross has a long history dating back to 1921 and became a member of the International Federation of Red Cross and Crescent Societies in 1995, it has limited capacity to meet the needs of vulnerable groups such as disabled and older people. Working with Communities to Strengthen Service is a major area of social work based on mutual aid and self-help that provides support to people who would otherwise not have their needs met.
The Working with Communities to Strengthen Service programme is aimed at older people, people with disabilities and families with young children who are in need of social support. It is based on the principle of mutual aid and self-help for people with common interests and aims to enable equal rights for all people to participate in society. Red Cross volunteers initially organise groups for people who are at risk of social exclusion with the aim of enabling and empowering participants to continue to operate the group without the constant support of a Red Cross volunteer.
The programme started in 2010 and there are now 67 groups that have been established and maintained across the Grodno, Vitebsk, Brest and Minsk region. They offer a range of activities including improved access to medical service, help and support for families who have disabled children, mutual support and self-help groups for older people and a range of craft and recreational opportunities that provide people with purposeful social interaction. A good example is the ‘Longevity through Movement’ group that began in 2011 in the social services centre in Zelva, Grodno with six like-minded older people who wanted to improve their health and well-being.
They started running physical activity classes twice a week, began to meet up with other people for leisure activities and realised that they could do more. They entered a competition run by the Belarusian Red Cross in 2013 and secured a grant for exercise equipment for the growing number of older people who wanted to participate in the group.
The group began to provide voluntary support to children and people with disabilities in the locality and to mark the day of the elderly person, disabled person’s day and women’s day with small events. This relatively small group participated in the Red Cross competition for the ‘Empowerment of older persons in decision making on their full participation in society’ for their ability to solve problems and be a full participant in public life and wider society.
In relation to the active ageing index domains, the Working with Communities programme and mini-projects such as Longevity through Movement are about enabling participation in society by encouraging voluntary activities that include providing care and support to the younger generation as well as providing mutual support to older people. Some mini-projects improve access to health services, lifelong learning and physical exercise within the independent, healthy and secure living domain. Although the scale of the programme is relatively modest in terms of costs and the mini-projects are often small in scale there is considerable potential in achieving results.