The “For A Strong Family” program was implemented through Cross of Armenian Unity’s charitable cultural organization and PH International, through funding by the US State Department’s International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Office of the U.S. Embassy’s project, “Community Connections and Initiatives For the Benefit of Legal Socialization”.
The project aims to improve the wellbeing of people in Echmiadzin and its surrounding communities, especially through effective communication between children and parents.
The first phase of the project took place from January to May of 2015. In this phase a group called “Family Support Council,” comprised of CAU’s program department employees, teachers, psychologists, and parents of students enrolled at the art school, passed a vocational training in “trainer skills”.
This training taught council members about the characteristics and qualities of a good trainer, public speaking skills, and effective principles and methods for training others.
The next phase involved trainings on child psychological development, stress management, age-appropriate child behavioral characteristics, the influence of parental attitudes in child development, issues with child adoption, the role of the father in the upbringing of a child, sexual education, parent-child dialogue, and issues arising from bad habits.
The following phase of the program educated the trainers on the project beneficiaries, Echmiadzin and its surrounding communities, school teachers, and students’ parents. 190 of the beneficiaries attended the training from the communities of Argavand, Rainbow, Norakert, Gai, Musaler, Voskehat, Aknashen, Araks, Tairov, Paraqar, Aknalich, and Vagharshapad schools nos. 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 11.
Finally, the participants learned about group and individual counseling sessions, the psychological characteristics of a child’s age, the ages of crises and adjustments, fear and aggression and methods to overcome these issues, how to promote strong parent-child relationships, causes of stress and coping methods, methods of sexual education, and the child’s role within a family.
After completion of the program, free and confidential individual and group counseling services on parenting and strong parent-child relationships were offered on a volunteer basis for the residents of Echmiadzin and its surrounding communities.
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Donor: Armenian Caritas, World Vision Armenia
With support and collaboration from the community, Caritas and World Vision Armenia used a framework provided by the municipality to jointly sponsor a community development center that aims to promote community development in 9 regions.
The project established a tailoring workshop where women had the opportunity to participate in a five month sewing class for free.
It also will target 15 high school students from nine districts to form a unique Youth Initiative Team for whom UNWTO has organized workshops on the following topics:
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• Social Networks
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• Blogging
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• Photography
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•Videography
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• Journalism
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• Assessing community problems and creating programs
The project developed proactive team members who used skills obtained during the workshops to create a youth blog, write articles, and conduct reviews and reports of their peers, community issues, and events.
The project also explored and recorded the potential for tourism in the nine regions.Nine communities expressed interest in this opportunity for tourism mapping, and a tourism marketing workshop was provided for the region’s tourism services. A booklet with tourism information in English was also published in collaboration with CAU’s 50 partner organizations and distributed to the tourist service areas.
Further, 10 children from vulnerable families in the target communities participated in a one-week summer training camp in Etchmiadzin. Camp participants were 12-14 years old and spent seven days painting, doing pottery, carpet-making, cooking national cuisine, dancing, and also went on excursions to Zvartnots and Yerevan. A exhibition was held for the artwork made by the children, and the artwork was later transferred to CDC and eventually Dprabak, where it now hangs in the mayor’s common corridor.
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Through this program, Caritas and World Vision Armenia jointly funded a carpet and rug making workshop in the Dprabak community of the Gegharkunik region.
The beneficiaries--women, women with disabilities, and refugees--learned the traditional methods of carpet and rug making, and 8 of the 16 women have since received jobs.Women learned to die thread with natural dies, which are later used in the process of carpet-making.After being trained, the beneficiaries could sell their woven rugs and carpets in an exhibition in Etchmiadzin. Proceeds from the sale were put back into the program to ensure its sustainability. Today, Dprabak continues to run the studio and has provided jobs for six women.
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2009 - 2010, "Elderly Socialize Through Learning the Traditional Method of Thread-Making of Eco-Carpets”: Implemented in the Dprabak Jambarak region, Dzoravank communities, and Echmiadzin
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• 2011-2012, "Women Socialize Through Traditional Crafts": Aims to promote socialization and opportunities for Tchambarak disadvantaged and vulnerable refugee women in Echmiadzin.
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• 2012 - 2013 season, "Providing Housework Opportunities for Women in the Getik Jambarak Community"
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2013
-2014
period,"Job Creation for Women in the Dprabak Jambarak Region Community."
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