Street Law Program

Ukrainian version | Russian version

Street Law Program

A Democratic State can't function
without respect to laws

Need

Why such program as the Street Law is needed in Ukraine?

with the increase of economic instability and funds cutting for educational programs, there are no programs which can educate youth about their rights in a simple and accessible form;

the number of reformatories, shelters and other establishments that work with the risk group youth is constantly increasing;

the course of "Law studies" at schools is over theoretical and doesn't provide students with any practical skills on how to use their rights;

the funding from the state authorities is very limited and thus, courses on new educational methodologies are cutting off and not financed;

youth organizations deal mostly with the traditional up-bringing of teenagers (scout programs, tourism, sports, etc.).

Describe the situation with civic rights in Ukraine, including other
programs on civic education which were realized or are being realized

As a term, civic rights in Ukraine are a new phenomenon (it is only some years ago when different NGOs started to join this program). And currently the organizations that received grants from international donors and began the companies on educating the population of Ukraine about their rights, are working in this sphere. Their production includes video films, TV programs, handouts and booklets. But these programs don't cover teenagers or don't work for them as a target group.

There are some Civic Education programs (the Network program of the Soros Foundation, the Civic Education program of the Canadian Embassy, some programs of the Legal Foundation and other projects), but these programs and projects are very narrow and are not expanded on a large number of educational establishments and organizations.

How does the Street Law Program differ from
other civic educational programs in Ukraine?

the target audience of the program is teenagers and youth (this part of the society is almost uncovered by both the state and foundations);

it is planned to expand the program on communities and educational establishments throughout the whole country, equally covering towns as well as villages;

the program will collaborate with the risk group kids (reformatories, shelters, "rooms for minors");

it allows teens with different backgrounds to take part (programs for different types of youth audience and meetings), proposes different forms of work: literature, seminars, activities;

it differs from standard methods of organizing and conducting lessons which are used in educational establishments of Ukraine;

the whole group participates in the learning process (interactive methods).

Goals and tasks

Identify the main goal

To teach youth to know its rights and use them correctly.

Tasks which have be taken into consideration in order to accomplish
the goal (more clear than goals, identify them in clear short statements)

to make a team of teachers and trainers able to implement the program in Ukraine;

to get familiar with the existing teaching methods of the Street Law Program in other countries;

to adapt and elaborate the program for: secondary educational establishments, out-of-school educational organizations, higher educational establishments;

to write a handbook and elaborate educational plans;

to establish pilot organizations for implementing the program;

at the final stage of the program adaptation, to implement it as a school subject in the 8th grade of secondary educational establishments and for community and social services organizations. To launch and expand the program.

As far as the program received a very positive feedback from the side of both teachers and NGOs, the program development is being done parallel in the following directions:

establishing a pilot school which is the 77^th secondary school in Kyiv where the teacher adapted the program for younger kids and works on creating a teaching curriculum. In the future, we plan to organize a program presentation for other schools that will be interested in the program. With more feedback from schools, we plan to expand the number of pilot school;

the meeting with representatives of the State Pedagogical Institute in Kyiv was organized in order to create a curriculum for the humanities faculties where future law teachers study. It is planned that representatives of the university will closely collaborate with teachers of secondary educational establishments;

work of legal clinics with teenagers. We plan that after attending the seminar in Poland the professors of the Law Faculties from the universities of Ivano-Frankivsk and Donetsk will conduct a seminar for teachers of other Ukrainian higher educational establishments to expand the program. Only universities which showed their desire to work in this field are planned to be invited to this seminar. After this, the collaboration with already existing legal clinics will be established in order to share experience in this field (trainings, visiting legal clinics, inviting colleagues from other countries to share experience).

Program Description

What has been achieved?

The team of trainers and representatives of the Ministry of Education took part in the training seminar in Budapest, Hungary.

After coming back to Ukraine, a series of seminars and round-table discussions to present the new program were held.

The team for writing a manual on the practical law for secondary educational establishments was chosen. The team for writing a course for NGOs and out-of-school organizations was chosen as well.

The first meeting of the program authors was held in order to discuss already worked out plans.

We also had the first presentation of the program for representatives of different international foundations and NGOs in Ukraine.

We had the meeting with representatives of the State Pedagogical Institute in Kyiv.

One pilot school was established where the Street Law course is being taught for younger kids.

Strategy plan for 1998-1999

Further work on writing plans and manuals for educational establishments and NGOs

to write and publish working manuals for the 8^th grades of secondary educational establishments;

to translate and adapt manuals for community and social services which work with teenagers;

to support pilot organizations among schools and NGOs;

to conduct educational seminars and workshops for teachers and NGOs' leaders.

Proposals for 1999-2000

to approve the program in pilot schools and NGOs;

to conduct educational trainings for teachers who join the program;

to conduct educational workshops;

to establish an educational network of experimental schools;

to establish a methodic center on the base of one of the schools in order to adapt new methodologies and conduct educational seminars to implement the program;

to publish the Street Law manuals for secondary schools;

to conduct a program presentation for teachers and university students;

to support organizations which start the program;

to edit and publish manuals for NGOs and community;

to conduct round-table meetings to improve the manuals;

to support the work of pilot organizations.

Expected outcomes: when the Street Law Program stops its operation in Ukraine, there will be a program that teaches teenagers and youth the practical law which will allow to improve the level of law awareness and consciousness of Ukrainian young people.

The program will be integrated into the educational process of secondary and higher educational establishments, will work with community and out-of-school educational establishments and organizations.

Target group:

teachers of secondary and higher educational establishments;

teenagers and university students;

parents of minors;

youth of the risk group;

reformatories for minors;

Sunday schools for national minorities;

people with limited physical abilities.

People and organizations that will collaborate with the program: describe their qualities,
experience and responsibilities within the project. Describe the collaboration
with other programs which can work with your program (who and how?)

The organizations which realize the program for the International Renaissance Foundation

The Ministry of Education is an official partner on the program implementation in educational establishments. The main administration of the secondary education department is fully responsible for making a team of the course authors, inviting independent experts, finding pilot organizations to conduct a series of seminars on the program implementation. The Institute of Sense and Methods of teaching also helps in the program realizations.
The Information Consultative Women Center and the Debate Center are implementing the program for out-of-school, educational and non-government organizations. The Women Center has started the collaboration with the Women's Consortium NIS-US / Winrock International on elaborating and implementing a training program for women and women's organizations. The Women' Consultative Center is the author of the program "The responsible education" for teenagers and students - program for gender sensitivity, studying human rights from a gender approach through interactive teaching and learning methods. The program found support in several towns of Ukraine where it has been implemented at schools. The center has an experience of work with pilot organizations. It received several grants from foreign foundations to support the program of trainings and the Responsible Education program.
The Debate Center has a network of youth organizations in the 8 cities of Ukraine (Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa, Kalush, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Lviv, Simferopol). All the centers are fully equipped (permanent Internet and e-mail access) and staffed (full-time director who is in charge of logistic and methodic work, full-time accountant). Also the centers use university students as volunteers. The staff of the centers attended trainings on fundraising, management, leadership, women and human rights, gender equality and antisexism. The centers have a developed relationship with state departments of youth affairs and policy, work with school and universities in towns and villages. They also received grants from other foundations for their own projects.

The program collaborate with:

The Ministry of Youth and Family in conducting common projects to implement the program in social services throughout Ukraine;
The Legal Foundation (Liudmyla Zablotska and Anatoliy Lyzohub) offers independent experts to evaluate the course implementation into the educational curriculum of schools. The program has common activities with the Legal Foundation, like seminars and round-table meetings. The Legal Foundation is one among the first in Ukraine that started reforming the legal system and improving the awareness of laws among Ukrainian citizens;
The Association of Law teachers (Liudmyla Lokha, Iryna Heiko, Olexandr Narovliansky) organizes the work with teachers of law as to program presentations and its implementation at schools together with the Ministry of Education. It will also help with its experts to evaluate the manual and the course. It will organize the program adaptation in pilot schools. Members of this Association are well-known teachers of law that use progressive teaching methods at schools organize and take part in writing teaching courses for legal studies;
The Ukrainian National Committee in Child's Rights Protection (Natalia Petrova) is a member of the program Board. It conducts common activities for social services and also works with legal clinics and conducts seminars for them;
The Civil Society Institute (Anatoliy Tykhonchuk, Evhen Lapin) is a member of the program Board. They are independent experts of the program in its implementation in community and social services. It, the Institute, provides us with literature, has common activities. The Institute has a valuable experience in receiving grants and publishing activities;
The Soros Foundation programs - the Debate, the Secondary Education, the Legal Clinics will help in conducting common activities, sharing experience of the work with secondary educational establishments.

Collaboration with International Foundations:

The Rule of Law Consortium - informational support by literature and work with communities and social services;

The Association of the America Lawyers;

The USIS - publishing of manuals and trainings for NGOs and social services;

The Eurasia Foundation.

In the future other organizations and program will collaborate with the program.

Evaluation

The program evaluation should be used at each stage of the program development.

Program evaluation will be based on:

the analysis of complex-controlling activities (the Ministry of Education, the Institute of Teachers' Recertification, NGOs, social services);

evaluation results of students, teachers, parents, social services employees, and leaders of NGOs;

tests of students' knowledge and expertise of manuals (Experts Commission of the Ministry of Education, independent experts of the program);

monitoring the publicity attention to the program and its goals (analysis of information in the press in order to evaluate how the society understands the tasks of the program);

analysis of the program achievements during a certain period of time;

coherence in the goals set for the program realization and its current situation;

evaluation of the program development at different stages, we plan to conduct round-table discussions and collaborate with all the pilot organizations throughout the program operation. Independent experts will describe their opinions and suggestions to agree on and improve the program development.

The Street Law Program is being realized in Ukraine by the Information Methodic Debate Center thanks to financial support by the International Renaissance Foundation

Go to the common information about the Information Methodic Debate Center

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