About EASPD

The European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD) is the European not-for-profit organisation representing over 20,000 social service providers in 41 countries.

EASPD’s mission is to promote equal opportunities for persons with disabilities through effective and high-quality service systems across Europe, in line with the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Our members are active in a wide range of activities, especially in care and support services, employment, education and training, and early childhood intervention.

Job Title:

Peer Support Facilitator

Project title:

Emergency Early Childhood Development Support for Ukrainian Refugees (ECDUR)

Post location:

Bulgaria, or Moldova, or Poland, or Romania, or Slovakia.

Project background

The European Association of Service providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD) is a European NGO active in 41 countries representing over 20.000 service providers for persons with disabilities. Its objective is to promote equal opportunities for people with disabilities through effective and high-quality service systems, in line with the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The war in Ukraine that started on 24 February 2022 is having a significant impact on the lives of young children and their families. According to UNHCR, as of 21 June 2022, more than 8 million people have fled their homes and crossed into neighbouring countries (over 3 million to Poland, over 924,000 to Romania, over 464,000 to the Republic of Moldova, over 426,000 to Slovakia and over 231,000 to Bulgaria). Over 2 million refugees are children (many separated or unaccompanied), of which an estimated 600,000 are under the age of 5 years.

At the onset of the war, EASPD became active in view of supporting its members across Europe, especially in the border countries, to support the refugees with disabilities coming from Ukraine. This led to the creation of 6 Temporary Regional Offices to help coordinate this process and facilitate the transfer of information.

In July 2022, UNICEF and EASPD signed a partnership agreement to provide Emergency early childhood development action to support young children with disabilities, developmental or behavioural challenges or at risk of developmental difficulties affected by the Ukraine war (regional multi-country initiative, taking place in Moldova, Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria).

Part of this project will focus on increasing the availability of trained Family Consultants who will provide ECD parental counselling, support children at risk and with developmental difficulties including disabilities through face-to-face and online sessions, and in collaboration with national partners build the cross–country referral pathways to maximize support from professionals across and within countries. It will also seek to increase the knowledge and competencies of families, especially parents from Ukraine, around early childhood support and other matters related to the development of children.

Under the project, 500 family consultants and 800 Peer Support Group Facilitators (UA / RU speaking) will be trained to provide early childhood development support, advice and referrals to families with children with disabilities, developmental or behavioural challenges or at risk of developmental difficulties, displaced due to Ukraine war. The training will be done in a cascade Training of the Trainers (ToT) approach by 10 international experts who will train 40 Emergency Early Childhood Development Response (ECDR) trainers from Moldova, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine and Romania.

EASPDis therefore looking for 800 Peer Support Group Facilitators from Ukraine to provide support to the families in the neighbouring countries.

Expected Tasks

The Peer Support Facilitators are expected to implement the following package of services to support families with young children at risk of or with developmental difficulties. The package may be different depending on the qualification of the parents, the local context, and the situation.

• Provide information to families and the refugee communities on the services provided by the family consultant, the national coordinator or other relevant services to displaced families.
• Identify and mobilize parents for peer support.
• Coordinate and organize peer support sessions.
• Lead a parent support group at least twice a week for up to 8-10 families online or in-person.
• Provide individual parent support sessions – online or in-person as per the need.
• Inform the family consultants and the organization about parents/families that need additional and more complex support.
• Coordinate and exchange with the national coordinator and family consultants within the project to ensure coordinated support.
• Support in organizing community events (e.g. During festive seasons or birthdays).
• Keeps basic documentation on the peer support provided.
• Participate in trainings and supervision sessions.
• Liaise with and reporting to EASPD’s National Coordinator.

Candidates profile

Essential experience

• Parent. Parent of a child with a disability is considered an asset.

Desirable experience

• Former leader of a parental support group
• Community organising or volunteering experience

Education

N/A

Language Requirements

Ukrainian or Russian Speaker.

Core Values

• Care
• Respect
• Integrity
• Trust
• Accountability

Core qualities

• Patient
• Willing to learn
• Empathetic
• Community leaders
• Active listeners
• Strong Communication Skills
• Open to collaboration with national coordinator and the family consultants

Remuneration

Each Peer Group Facilitator will receive remuneration of 20 EUR/day for providing direct support to families (for Ukrainian citizens receiving payments from the government as refugees: in the form of vouchers or volunteer honorarium not to suspend financial support from the receiving country).

Application process

Please send us a short motivational letter (up to 900 characters) in Ukrainian or Russian, describing why you want to become a peer support facilitator and telling us about your previous experiences. Add your Name, Surname, Current location, and your Phone number to the email. The subject of the email should be “Application to become Peer Support Facilitator in [Country]”. The address is:

Bulgaria – info@thesocialteahouse.bg
Moldova – moldova@khs.org
Slovakia – zhannat.mukhamadiyeva@tenenet.sk

Poland -  ecdur@fundacjaimago.pl  (Mariia Pavlova)
Romania – daniela.pasare@fonss.ro (Daniela Pasăre)

Deadline to apply: 28th February 2023