Safety of international students. Ivano-Frankivsk

The "МіСuLab.Police Lab" initiative is a joint project of the Non-governmental organization “UKRAINE NEEDS YOU” and the Patrol Police of the Ivano-Frankivsk region. The project is implemented with the support of the Community Policing Innovation Fund (CPIF) of the Police Training Assistance Project (PTAP), implemented in Ukraine by Agriteam Canada Consulting Ltd with the financial support of Government of Canada.

The main objective of this project is raising awareness of foreign and Ukrainian students as regards their rights and duties; improving and securing the result of the community policing; contributing to setting up of an advisory body (HotLine) on a non-commercial basis, with the assistance of the Patrol Police Department, to help handle complicated life situations foreign and Ukrainian students of Ivano-Frankivsk higher educational institutions (referred hereinafter as “HEI”) face.

Goals of the Project:

• Involvement of the police officers at all phases of the project.
• Identifying, during the project, all issues of concern for Ukrainian and foreign students, the problems they face most often.
• Establishing of cooperation and interaction between the foreign students and the patrol police.
• Coverage of the project’s agenda and the ways of settlement of the problems, via the social networks, mass media and additional mass events.
• Preparation of the platform for the next phase of the project (setting up the advisory body “HotLine”).

Results:

• Media coverage of the project and its agenda in local and nationwide mass media. Holding of 4 presentations in 4 HEIs of Ivano-Frankivsk. Setting up a group of “lab assistants” — 20 persons (10 Ukrainian and 10 foreign students in a maximally gender-balanced group).
• 20 participants attended 6 classes (once in a week) and acquire necessary knowledge which is to enable them to independently offer free advice to the other students, based on the response protocols to be drawn up during the project by the students themselves, together with the public persons, psychologists, lawyers and police officers.
• The male and female participants carry out 4 dialogue-based and/or outreach events, together with the police officers, which are to involve about 100 persons.
• Hereafter, the students, “Lab Assistants”, are able to implement similar joint projects in cooperation with the police and the community (not limited to students only); the active students of Ivano-Frankivsk have the opportunity to provide prompt and reliable information and offer to one another prompt consulting assistance in settling essential issues due to the knowledge and response protocols acquired, which contribute to setting up of so needed HotLine, and to close cooperation with the police. The experience acquired during this project will be used in other Ukrainian cities.