Today, SOS DK launches its Children’s Living Places project – a new project that seeks to promote and improve alternative care in Ukraine through the creation of new family-based care environments in Ukraine as an alternative to the many institutions in the country. Even before the war erupted in February 2022, Ukraine had one of the highest rates of children living in institutional care in Europe, with about 100.000 children living in some form of residential care facility.
The physical project infrastructure will comprise a cluster of buildings across Ukraine in three different locations. Each cluster will feature homes for foster families, shared recreational and social spaces for both inhabitants and local communities, and social centres that provide a range of mental health and social support for foster families as well as families in the surrounding area.
The buildings will be built following the Living Places concept developed by the VELUX Group, EFFEKT architects and Artelia engineers. The concept demonstrates how affordable homes can be constructed with a significant reduction in CO2 footprint and a first-class indoor climate and follow five key principles: that homes should be healthy, adaptive, simple, shared over time, and scalable.
The World Bank estimates that over 10% of the total housing stock in Ukraine is either damaged or destroyed by the war and that close to 2 million households are affected. Foto: Grundfos Fonden.
The clusters will be built within existing local neighbourhoods to better integrate the new families, ensuring openness toward and from surrounding communities. In addition to the physical infrastructure, the project includes the provision of comprehensive support services such as mental health and social support tailored to the specific needs of children and caregivers as well as families in the surrounding area to prevent family separation and placing of children in alternative care.