In the period of May 7-10, Workshop was conducted for Social Service Agency social workers in Golden Fleece Hotel, Anaklia. The topic of the workshop was “Revised Gatekeeping Policy, Procedures and Social Work Practice Forms”. The workshops implemented in several stages and all social workers throughout Georgia taken part in it. The workshop were led by: Eka Saneblidze, Head of  Social Programs and Guardianship and Care Department at Social Service Agency, Salome Namicheishvili, GASW Chairperson, and Nino Shatberashvili, GASW Board Member.
The workshop was carried out within the frames of Strengthening Child Care Services and Systems Project implemented with the financial support of USAID in partnership with UNICEF.

On April 28th, GASW office hosted training for Association’s student members on the issues related to employment in social work field. The training was led by GASW’s Program Development Manager, Nelly Akobia, MSW. The training focused on the current employment opportunities in social work in Georgia as well as the skills necessary for searching and obtaining these employment opportunities: searching for job openings, preparing CV and motivation letter, and what to do on a job interview.
In the nearest future, GASW office will host several more similar trainings in order to provide as many student members as possible with an opportunity to participate in them. The training series is undertaken with the support of Open Society Foundations Alumni Project.

On April 24th, Georgian Association of Social Workers launched the project “Skills Development for Mobile Team Workers through Trainings and Supervision Sessions”. The project is implemented in cooperation with and supported by Caritas Georgia in the period of April – November, 2012. The goal of the project is to support the social work capacity building of Caritas non-statutory service working with vulnerable children. Between the trainings and supervision sessions GASW consultants will be involved in field work together with the mobile team workers with the aim to observe their practice in the field and provide them with relevant feedback.

On April 21st, GASW hosted a meeting on social work practice teaching. The meeting was attended by the representatives of the General Prosecutor’s Office, namely, coordinators of witnesses and victims. Involvement of the representatives of the General Prosecutor’s Office in social work practice teaching component is provided for in the memorandum of understanding between GASW and Prosecutor’s Office singed in March of the current year. Within the frames of this memorandum, it was planned that social work students would undergo practice teaching with the coordinators of witnesses and victims which would serve as an excellent opportunity for the students to gain professional skills and knowledge. The meeting with practice teachers aimed at acquainting the new teachers on the responsibilities of both University and practice teaching organizations, as well as current achievements and challenges in the practice teaching component.

On April 20th, joint working meeting of Social Service Agency and mandaturs of educational institutions was held at the Policy Academy. GASW supported Social Service Agency in identifying the major directions and format of inter-sectoral cooperation. The meeting was opened with the speeches from Irakli Nadareishvili, Deputy Minister of Labor, Health and Social Affairs, and Akaki Seferteladze, First Deputy Minister of Education and Science. The following topics were discussed at the joint working meeting: protection of children from abuse; child protection referral procedures; functions and responsibilities of social workers and mandaturs; experience of mandaturs as well as social workers in regards to child protection referral procedures.
This meeting is a good starting point for the launch of discussions on child protection issues between these two governmental services. GASW regards the role of school as one of the major social institutions to be tremendously important in the protection of children. We hope that in the future school administration representatives, teachers and head teachers will also take part in similar discussions.

On April 11th, 2012, according to a decree issued by Social Service Agency, GASW became a member of guardianship and care regional panels in three regions: Guria, Kvemo Kartli and Shida Kartli. GASW has been a member of Tbilisi regional panel since 2011.  GASW’s involvement is planned in more regional panels throughout Georgia.
Guardianship and care regional panel is a multidisciplinary decision making body at Social Service Agency. Panel members are representatives from nongovernmental and governmental sectors.  Its major merit is that decisions about vulnerable groups are shared through the interagency approach. The role of the panel is especially important in light of the implementation of the new Gatekeeping policy and procedures. GASW is happy to have an opportunity to participate and share decision making responsibility in relation to guardianship and care issues.

On March 26th, GASW office hosted the first orientation meeting with up to 20 participants of the training course on Patients’ Rights and Advocacy. The training course consists of several training days and includes the following topics: advocacy, patients’ rights, patient-doctor relationship, as well as working with families, the elderly and children. The training participants consist of practitioner social workers in the health sector, social work students undergoing their field practice in the health settings, as well as volunteer social workers who have undertaken volunteer activities in the same settings. Most of the training participants are GASW members. The training course is led by Mahnaz Harrison, Fullbright Scholar. Ms. Harrison has experience working in the social work as well as health management fields in the United States of America and Iran. The training course has been launched within the frames of the World Social Work Week.