A City Safe for Children: A Project for Creating a Child-Friendly Environment is Being Implemented in Lviv

The "City for the Child" project aims to create a safe environment and prevent potential risks of abuse against children. It is being implemented by the Child's Dignity Center of the Ukrainian Catholic University in collaboration with various departments of the Lviv City Council. Students from the Ukrainian Catholic University will also be involved in the project.

Christina Shabat, the head of the Child's Dignity Center at UCU, explains that the goal of the collaboration is to develop unified standards for working with children in the city. "Every child should feel safe and know that adults care for them. And if something goes wrong, they should know where to turn for help. That's why, together with the city, we decided to develop standards for a safe childhood and implement them. Because children in a country at war can only feel safe when there are safe adults around them who understand and support them," says Christina Shabat.

In such departments of the Lviv City Council as the Education, Culture, Sports, Healthcare, Social Protection, Transport, Child Services, the Family and Children Support Center "Ridni," and the Tourism Office, adults in the city most often interact with children. Therefore, effective response algorithms to children's safety threats will be developed for these institutions, along with protection policies and a code of conduct for employees.

Students from the "Social Work" program at the Faculty of Health Sciences at UCU are involved in the project. As part of the socially-oriented learning approach, they are studying the course "Prevention of Child Abuse: Protection Policies." The course is practice-oriented. Together with lecturer Christina Shabat, the students will contribute to developing safe environment standards in various sectors of the city, assess risks, and work on writing protection policies.

On October 16-17, the Child's Dignity Center of UCU, in partnership with the Department of Child Services, conducted training for representatives of the Lviv City Council departments within the framework of the "City for the Child" project. The participants of the training were introduced to the findings of research by the Child's Dignity Center of UCU and the Fama Research Agency, including "Sexual Abuse in Ukraine: From Awareness to Protection" (2021) and "A School Safe for Children" (2024). This helped them better understand what safety for children means and what threats exist to it.

The training included a practical block where the representatives of the departments and services identified the risk factors to children's safety in the city and developed strategies to address them.

Volodymyr Frydrak, the head of the Department of Child Services of the Lviv City Council, shared: "The city interacts with children through our structural units. It is important that in all these places, children meet safe adults. The implementation of child protection standards will create a safe environment for children. It is essential that the people who interact with children on behalf of the city regularly undergo training and not only know how to interact with children, but also become those safe adults for them. And, if necessary, they should report to the relevant authorities that a child needs help."

Невдовзі студенти інтерв’юватимуть працівників управлінь міської ради, які у своїй роботі найчастіше контактують із дітьми, та споживачів послуг, адже важливо знати, як вони бачать ризики загрози безпеці дітей. Після опрацювання результатів інтерв’ю, завданням кожної групи студентів буде написати політику захисту дітей для певного управління чи комунальної установи. В результаті має з’явитися один стандарт і 9 політик та кодекс поведінки для працівників. На основі цього буде розроблене навчання для кожного стейкхолдера. Також із кожним управлінням та комунальною установою додатково обговорюватимуть і узгоджуватимуть напрацювання зі створення політик, щоб остаточно визначити, як найкраще реагувати на загрози. Після цього відбудеться презентація результатів.

Soon, students will interview employees of city council departments who most frequently interact with children, as well as service users, to understand how they perceive the risks to children's safety. After analyzing the results of the interviews, each student group will be tasked with writing a child protection policy for a specific department or municipal institution. As a result, one standard, nine policies, and a code of conduct for employees will be created. Based on this, training will be developed for each stakeholder. Additionally, each department and municipal institution will further discuss and refine the policy development to determine the best response to potential threats. Finally, the results will be presented.

The head of the Child Dignity Center at UCU, Khrystyna Shabat, emphasized: "When we talk about child protection, we are talking about cross-sectoral cooperation. All adults who work with children in the city must understand certain behavioral rules and follow them. Children must know where and to whom they can turn for help if their safety is threatened in the city."

It is worth noting that the Ukrainian Catholic University was the first among higher education institutions in Ukraine to introduce a socially-oriented learning approach (Service-learning, SL) in 2019. This approach allows professors and students to combine theoretical education with practical activities that benefit society. Young people actively participate in important initiatives and work on real tasks to improve the life of communities. This fosters leadership, inclusion, and teamwork, with students witnessing their positive impact, while society benefits from the solutions to specific challenges. These valuable practices and results can be applied to other communities. This approach aligns perfectly with UCU's 2030 strategy of being a "University that serves."