GCRT in cooperation with Global Initiative on Psychiatry (Tbilisi and Hillversum offices) Union Saphari, Ministry of Corrections and Legal Aid, Ministry of Education and Public Defender’s Office is implementing an EU funded project “Ensuring Access to Sustainable Development for Juvenile Convicts through an Issue Based Inter-Sectoral Cooperation”

The project is funded by the European Union. The overall objective of the project is to maximally improve the conditions of the most vulnerable, marginalized and disadvantaged youth in Georgia – juvenile convicts serving a prison term in juvenile correctional facility; to ensure their access to education and development, to guarantee their well being, to promote their re-socialization and re-integration through a structured dialogue between the civil society and state actors, through capacity building of these sectors on implementing coordinated actions and through introduction of new instruments/initiatives into the system of juvenile justice by adapting best European practices of the juvenile detention system and introducing these practices in the context of juvenile correctional facility, through trainings of staff, provision of screening, risk assessment instruments, preparing the basis for introduction of needs based educational and day programs. This will lead to a more strategic approach on delivering services to juveniles in detention. Implementation of the project is advised by Dutch Juvenile Facility Avenier.

This particular project is part of the larger juvenile justice reform process that is taking place in Georgia. We hope that the project will allow translation and implementation of policy changes in the Juvenile Correctional Facility and will alleviate the lives of boys in detention. Within the frames of the project it is planned to introduce day program EQUIP into the Avchala Juvenile Correctional Facility.

EQUIP is a new, highly effective program for young people with antisocial behavior problems; it motivates and equips young people to help one another. It is used in different countries in juvenile correctional facilities to assist the young offenders in re-socialization process. The program works on three basic limitations which are characteristic to antisocial youngsters – social skill deficiencies, social developmental delays and social cognitive distortions. The program is composed of two types of meetings – the equipment meetings and mutual help meetings. The equipment meetings are based on coordinated curriculum components that deal with moral education, anger management and correction of thinking errors, and social skills. In mutual help meetings the group members are required to report their cognitive distortions or thinking errors, discuss them with each other and come to a solution. GCRT together with its project partners aims at introducing the EQUIP program to the juvenile correctional facility of Avchala, Tbilisi. In March 30-31 two psychologists from  Avenier Centre for Reeducation of Juveniles conducted the EQUIP training in GCRT Tbilisi. Psychologists, social workers and psychiatrists from GCRT and from Avchala correctional facility attended the training. Starting from June it is planned to pilot the program in the facility.

From year 2011 the facility intends to incorporate the program in its daily activities.