On 5 December 2018, Terre des hommes Regional Office for Central and Southeast Europe and partner NGO Center for Children's Rights of Montenegro organised an event on the occasion of the beginning of the Child Protection Hub project in Montenegro, in Podgorica. The main goal of the project is to strengthen and connect the community of professionals in the field of child protection. Special attention within the project is given to the prevention and ending violence against children. Thanks to the support of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, the Child Protection Hub has the opportunity to extend its activities to Montenegro in partnership with the Center for Children's Rights of Montenegro.
As a ChildHub resource person from Serbia, Jasmina Miković from Praxis participated at the event which brought together over 50 professionals from various sectors dealing with prevention of violence and protection of children. On this occasion, the Head of the World Health Organization Office in Montenegro, Mina Brajović, presented the INSPIRE package of strategies for the prevention and protection of children from violence. Representatives of the UNICEF Office in Montenegro presented the ways in which four of the seven INSPIRE strategies are implemented, as well as various forms of support provided by UNICEF to national partners in protecting children from violence, abuse and neglect. On 6 and 7 December, fifteen Resource Persons from the South East Europe gathered in Bečići, Montenegro, to improve their leadership and coaching skills, in preparation of ChildHub's new activity "peer-to-peer support". Experienced executive and business coach Srđan Vukčević, Founder and CEO of Blue Coach helped participants review their own leadership styles, and work through their strong traits and those they needed to improve. During the training, participants also discussed how the ChildHub team/community could become stronger and more efficient, and fulfill its objectives better. After a lecture on the latest neuroscience of learning new habits, participants also had a short session on mindfulness, a practice that helps both children and adults to reduce stress, and which can facilitate learning in a very effective way.
After a discussion on how the peer-to-peer activity could be put in place, agreement was reached that each country team of Resource Persons would discuss and develop their own system, keeping in mind the overall aim and philosophy of voluntarism.
