On July 14, the Open Society Foundation and the “Global Initiative on Psychiatry-Tbilisi” (GIP-T) announced the launch of two EU-supported projects.
Both projects – Empowering civil society and professional organizations to ensure a safe, secure, and accountable society in Georgia and Civil Society for Resilient and Safer Communities (CiSSCo) focused on reducing the harm of drug use through strengthening state strategy and systems as well as improving legislation.
Empowering civil society and professional organizations to ensure a safe, secure, and accountable society in Georgia will be implemented by the Open Society Georgia Foundation together with six partner organizations for three years. Activities planned within the framework of the project will contribute to the safety and security of citizens through the development of human rights-based drug policy, crime, and drug abuse prevention, and strengthening treatment and care systems.
The project includes activities for capacity building of law enforcement agencies, educational system and related personnel, health service providers, and the health system. Substance abuse prevention strategies and intervention mechanisms will be developed. In addition, the project involves advocacy for drug-related legislation and policy change and the development of the thematic, technical, and organizational capacity of civil society organizations.
Within the framework of the project “Empowering civil society and professional organizations to ensure safe, secure, and accountable society in Georgia”, the partner organizations of Open Society Georgia are Alternative Georgia, Social Justice Center, Georgia Family Medicine Association, Public Union Bemoni, Union Step to the Future and Association of Young Psychologists and Doctors Xenon.
Another project “Civil Society for Resilient and Safer Communities (CiSSCo)” which is led by “Global Initiative on Psychiatry-Tbilisi (GIP-T)”, will contribute to the successful implementation of the National Anti-Drug Strategy and Juvenile Justice Reform in Georgia for three and a half years.
The main directions of the action are:
Strengthening institutional mechanisms and local capacity for Crime Prevention in Georgia; Strengthening institutional mechanisms and local capacity for Drug Prevention in Georgia; Upgrading professionals’ capacity for mental health and psychosocial care of people who use drugs, namely beneficiaries of State, NGO, and private-run Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) programs; Developing institutional mechanisms of quality education in the field of drug and crime prevention and treatment; Providing multidisciplinary mental health services for children, adolescents and youth with behavioral, emotional and addiction-related problems and advocating for the sustainability of these services; Supporting projects aimed at meeting the needs of various disadvantaged communities (community safety projects for ethnic minorities, employment projects for groups living below the poverty line and women drug users, etc.).
The “Global Initiative on Psychiatry-Tbilisi (GIP-T)” will work on this project with partner organizations: Georgian Center for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT), Institute of Democracy (IOD), media organization “Publika”, UKE Consult und Management GmbH (UCM) and Oxford Brookes University.
