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1999 -
2001
During this time, Dr. Haroutunian was in the U.S.
on a Fulbright grant. She was affiliated with George Mason University in
Alexandria, VA. She conducted advanced research in the area of conflict
resolution strategies (her current primary scholarly interest) at the
Department of Conflict Studies. While in Virginia, she made several trips
to Connecticut to consult on current and future program activities. She
also consulted with and prepared two Armenian American MSW students at
UCONN, who traveled with Mr. Moushigian to Armenia for 2 weeks in March of
2000. Major work was completed on the courses and lesson plans for
components of the newly established Master’s program in social work.
Fifteen graduates of the Bachelor’s program were admitted to the two year
Master’s program in the Fall of 2000. Components of the program were
developed by several different faculty members in consultation with Dr.
Haroutunian. The lesson plans were given by Dr Haroutunian to YSU faculty
who are now teaching the courses with e-mail consultation from UCONN
faculty. Dr. Humphreys and a former adjunct faculty member in full-time
clinical practice who developed the clinical component of the program will
travel to Armenia in 2001 to assess the initial year’s implementation of
the program.
In the Spring of 2000 two Armenian-American
second year MSW students from UCONN traveled to Armenia as a part of their
field education. The students worked on two assignments; one with
expereince in media production shot the footage for a 50 minute video,
"Beginning Where the Soviet Ends: The Story of the Development of Social
Work In Armenia".
Much of the post-production costs of editing and
formatting the video was covered by a small grant from the Charles
Mosesian Family Foundation. The second intern completed a series of eight
focus groups with various sub-groups of women in Charentsavan, an example
of a soviet planned or artificial community, about 30 miles from Yerevan,
the capital of Armenia. The focus groups pointed to the need to create a
women’s center to help women face the many problems associated with the
dramatic transition in government and the economy which came as a result
of the break up of the Soviet Union. (A copy of the report to the Mayor of
Charentsavan is attached.)
Dr. Harountunian sought the needed funding for
the women’s center from a Southern California chapter of the International
Association of Armenian Women. This group made a modest contribution of
several thousand dollars for the establishment of a women’s center in
Yerevan, the capital and largest city. Two current second-year MSW
students, not of Armenian ethnicity, are going to Yerevan in March of 2001
to help bring the Yerevan Women’s center into operation.
In January 2001, the University of Connecticut
submitted a grant proposal through the NIS College and University
Partnership Program, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs,
Department of State. This proposal builds on and expands the ten-year
collaboration between the UCONN School of Social Work and Yerevan State
University. The proposed work would expand the current program by
incorporating other scientific experts from UCONN as part of creating a
number of local community development and service centers. The women’s
center in Charentsavan would be one of the centers to be funded by the
grant. The expanded set of experts proposed by UCONN and matched by
counterparts at YSU include faculty in geography and geographic
information systems, law and non-governmental organizations, and nutrition
and Cooperative Extension programming. We will be advised about the
funding decision for the grant in August 2001.
Early in 2001, the School of Social Work
established the Charles Mosesian Family Foundation Fund for Armenian
Studies at the School of Social Work, with an initial contribution of
$25,000 which will qualify for one to two matching through UCONN 2000.
This fund will support components of the on-going educational project.
1996 - 1997
Garbis Moushigian spent the 1996-1997 Academic
year in Armenia on a Fulbright Fellowship. His primary responsibility was
to develop ten field education sites as well as train faculty and agency
personnel on the fundamentals of field education as a part of professional
education. He conducted seminars with students to help them integrate
classroom instruction with field work learning. He was also involved in
helping the faculty begin the process of creating a Master’s in Social
Work program. During the Summer of 1997, Dr. Humphreys traveled to Armenia
to review the newly designated field work agencies and meet with faculty
for planning the Master’s program. During this visit, Dr Humphreys, Dr
Haroutunian and Mr. Moushigian met with the Catholicos-the head of the
Armenian church-to discuss the joint work to date as well as to invite his
help in securing funding for the continuing development of social work in
Armenia. In February of 1997, we submitted a request for funding to the
Lincey Foundation, after months of consultation with officials at the Fund
for Armenian Relief, who promised to encourage the Foundation to look
favorably on the request. Unfortunately the request was denied.
1994
A four person delegation from UCONN traveled to Armenia in June of
1994. The expenses for this trip were met through the Dean’s Contingency
Fund of the School of Social Work. Members of the delegation included Dr.
Humphreys, Dr. Julianne Wayne, Mr. Moushigaian and Arlene Dermirjian, an
Armenian American social work doctoral student from Hunter College in New
York City. The primary purpose of this visit was to administer oral
examinations to the graduates of the first training program at the
conclusion of the six-month training program. The faculty strongly
believed that the newly created profession would have higher status and
become accepted more quickly if it had the "seal of approval"
from U.S. educators. An individual, one- hour oral examination, with
translation, was conducted with each trainee. The examiners were impressed
with the quality of the trainees and all but one were certified for
graduation.
An important meeting was held between the UCONN delegation and members
of the YSU faculty with the elected Vice President of the Parliament of
the Republic of Armenia and members of the Parliament’s Standing
Commission on Health and Social Welfare. The primary purpose of this
meeting was to stress the importance of including social work in the
legislation which define and recognize professions in Armenia.
(Recognition is a government sanction equivalent to licensing is in the
U.S.). Dr. Humphreys was a principal presenter, along with Minister
Yessayan and member of the YSU faculty at a National Roundtable discussion
on the development of the Armenian model of social work.
In addition to examination of students and consultation with the
faculty, the delegation met with the a number of officials. Meetings were
held with the following organizations and representatives: the American
Center Director at the U.S. Embassy; the head of the UNICEF office for the
Caucus Region, and a program officer at the German Embassy who reported
that Germany would be taking the lead in the administration of European
funding (TEMPUS grants) for the development of social work in Armenia. In
addition, several meetings and discussions were held with Susan Olds,
Director, and Bruce Grogan, Senior Advisor and Program Officer in the
Trans Caucus office of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Consultations with Mr. Grogan continued throughout 1994-1995 on the
subject of the development of the PAROS need assessment system that was
subsequently implemented in Armenia.
1993
In the Fall of 1993, Dr. Harountunian was hosted by UCONN for a
two-week period of intensive consultations. During this period, we
finalized the curriculum and field internship activities for the third
year of the four-year Bachelor’s program. A set of competencies was
developed for the 6-month trainees that were the basis of the oral
examinations to be administered by the UCONN delegation in May of 1994. In
addition, Dr. Haroutunian made a number of presentations to classes,
students groups at UCONN and other local social work education programs,
as well as to many Armenian American community groups in Connecticut and
New York. 1992
In the Spring of 1992, Dr. Humphreys, Mr Moushigian and Ms Kerrie Jones
Clark Executive Director, Windham Area Community Action Program, visited
Armenia as official guests of the Armenian government. Ms. Clark had
hosted Dr. Haroutunian at one of the agency visits in 1991, and the
Windham program had many service programs in rural areas, similar to what
would be needed in Armenia. During the visit, the delegation met with the
Minister of Labor and Social Welfare and other officials of the Ministry,
consulted with the leadership of various sites that might become places of
training and employment of social workers, including several general and
specialized acute and rehabilitation hospitals, mental health clinics, an
old age home, and local health clinics. Extensive meetings and
consultations were conducted with faculty to plan for the initial 6 month
training programs as well as the formal academic training of social work
students.
In the summer of 1992, UCONN hosted another visit of Dr. Haroutunian to
Connecticut, this time accompanied by Ashot Yessayan, the (cabinet-level)
Minister of Labor and Social Welfare. Visits, meetings and consultations
were arranged with many agencies including a lengthy consultation with the
United Way. Dr. Harountunian, Minister Yessayan, Dr. Humphreys, Dr.
Julianne Wayne and Mr. Moushigian presented a paper on the development of
social work in Armenia as part of a Round Table Discussion at the
Conference of the International Association of Schools of Social Work in
Washington, D.C. in August of 1992. |
