Programs and Partnerships

Since 1977, the Institute for Human Services (IHS) has worked tirelessly throughout the United States and Canada to provide training resources necessary to ensure the highest standards in child welfare toward ensuring safety for children and permanency for families. 

In 2004, IHS Director Dr. Ronald C. Hughes and Program Manager, Dr. Judith S. Rycus took their commitment a step further by providing those same training resources to international and multidisciplinary child advocates. 

Now, in collaboration with four participating countries which include Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and Kyrgyzstan, IHS is helping these new international partners build capacity and teaching them the fundamental concepts necessary to work with abused, neglected and sexually abused children and their families.  

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About our International Partners

Lamb International

• Website
• Blog

International Leadership and Development Center (ILDC)

• Website
• Blog

Father's House International Charity Foundation:

• Website
• Annual Report

EveryChild Ukraine:

• Website

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(Ohio Child Welfare Leaders Participate in Russian-American Child Welfare Forum...continued from Home Page)

Seventeen committees were formed under the Bilateral Commission to address the highest priority need areas.  One of these was the Civil Society Committee. Four sub-working groups were created within the Civil Society Committee. These included migration, prison reform, anti-corruption and child protection. Dr. Ronald Hughes, Director of the Institute for Human Services  (IHS) was appointed to be a delegate to the Civil Society Committee specifically to work within the Child Protection Sub-Working Group.  The Child Protection Sub-Working Group meets twice a year – once in Russia and once in the United States – and its members include representatives of both governmental and non-governmental organizations involved in protecting children’s rights and interests.

An outgrowth of discussions among the Child Protection Sub-Working Group, was the recognition of the need for, the decision to organize the First Russian-American Child Welfare Forum. This Forum was held August 2-6, 2011 in Ulan Ude, the capital of the Republic of Buryatia, and in Sukhaya, a village on the shores of Lake Baikal. Among the American participants to the forum were three Ohio child welfare leaders:  Dr. Ronald Hughes and Dr. Judith Rycus, Director and Program Director of IHS, and Ms. Crystal Ward Allen, Director of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio (PCSAO). 

Ohio’s influence on child welfare reform in Russia stretches back many years.  Over the past two decades, Ohio has been the laboratory for the development and implementation of perhaps the most comprehensive, thorough, and recognized child welfare training system in North America.  The combined effort of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the Public Children Services Association of Ohio, Ohio’s 88 county child protective service agency directors, eight county-based regional training centers, and the Institute for Human Services has been a model for program development throughout the United States and Canada.  Similarly, the Field Guide to Child Welfare, Ohio’s primary child welfare textbook that reflects Ohio’s program development, is the most widely published child welfare textbook in the history of the social work profession, and has been translated into additional languages, including Russian. 

Alaska was one of many states that looked to Ohio for help with their child protective services program and training development. Based upon a shared past, Russia has a long history of looking to Alaska for developmental assistance.  When Russia began the task of child welfare reform in the early part of the last decade, they looked to Alaska for assistance, and the University of Alaska embedded professors in Russia for a year to support their efforts. The same educators had been responsible for bringing the Ohio Model to Alaska several years earlier.  This was the beginning of Russia’s utilization of the Ohio Model as a guide to their CPS reform.  The National Foundation for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NFPCC) in Moscow subsequently contacted the Institute for Human Services for assistance and asked if they could use Ohio’s child welfare products and technologies as the foundation for their reform efforts and their training.  

The Forum was a collaborative effort at many levels.  Russian contributors included the Government of the Republic of Buryatia, with special involvement of the President of the Republic, Mr. Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn, and his staff.  Other contributors were the Office of the Children’s Rights Commissioner for the President of the Russian Federation; the Gorbachev Foundation, the Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Siberian Federal District; and the National Foundation for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, a non-governmental organization located in Moscow.  The American contributors and co-organizers of the Forum included the United States Department of Justice, the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC), and the Institute for Human Services (IHS).

During the opening plenary, videotaped welcomes were shared from the co-chairs of the Child Protection Sub-Working Group, Mr. Andrew Oosterbaan, Chief of the Child Exploitation and Obsenity Section of the US Department of Justice, and Mr. Pavel A. Astakhov, Children’s Rights Ombudsman of the Russian Federation.  A meeting of the Child Protection Sub-Working Group was subsequently held during the Forum, co-chaired by Mr. Luke Dembosky, US Department of Justice resident legal advisor at the US Embassy in Moscow, and Mr. Anton P. Astakhov, Assistant Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights for the Russian Federation.

During the Forum, more than 200 child welfare professionals from Russia and the US participated in wide ranging dialogue regarding identification and intervention in a host of child welfare topic areas, including child pornography, child sex trafficking, alcohol abuse and fetal alcohol syndrome, chronic neglect and poverty, medical diagnosis of child maltreatment, child abuse prevention, risk assessment and safety planning, the civil society infrastructure necessary for child protection, child fatalities, working with families, and the role of training and education in building a competent child protection work force.  The issues of child sex trafficking and child pornography were a follow-up to initiatives begun in an earlier meeting in Moscow of the Civil Society Committee.

In addition to child pornography and child sex trafficking, a lot of new ground was covered at the Forum.  One area emphasized in presentations and discussions was prevention in all areas of child maltreatment, including physical abuse and neglect as well as sexual abuse.  Another emphasis was the introduction of treatment intervention models that have substantial empirical support.  Considerable time was spent specifically on issues related to alcohol abuse and its effects on neonates, a serious problem affecting both Russia and the United States. 

As part of the ongoing efforts to assist Russian child welfare reform, American Embassy staff in Moscow, are exploring the possibility of bringing political and administrative personnel from the Moscow region to the United States for a several-week working visit to view and analyze child welfare practice firsthand.  Because of the effectiveness of Ohio’s child welfare programming and training, Columbus is being considered as a “sister city” specifically as a resource to help child welfare professionals in the Moscow region in their child welfare reform efforts.  Our Russian colleagues have recognized Ohio to be a laboratory of advanced child maltreatment practice, with consistent and strategic governmental leadership, collaboration with and utilization of productive non-governmental organizations (NGOs) (one of Russia’s civil society objectives), transparent commitment to program implementation, and commitment to empirical research and evaluation.  This is the model that has been embraced by the Russian government for future development of child welfare in their country.  The Russian Forum participants were especially impressed with presentations by Ohio’s PCSAO Director, Crystal Ward Allen, and Florida child welfare administrator, Dr. Michael Haney, for their discussions of the successful collaboration among central and regional government agencies and NGOs. 

Planning, presenting, and participating in the First Russian-American Child Welfare Forum was an interesting and productive experience for the U.S. participants.  All of us were overwhelmed by the generosity and hospitality of our Russian hosts and by the personal and professional respect that was shown in response to our time and effort.  Clearly, there are substantial needs related to improving the safety and wellbeing of children in Russia, and there is much we can offer.  Even small and measured investment has the potential to produce significant gains for children and families, and Russian child welfare professionals can learn not only from our successes, but also from our mistakes. We also have much to gain by participating in Russian child welfare reform efforts, particularly in assessing the utility and transferability of American standards and practices to very different political and cultural contexts.

Because the conference was intended to be the first of an ongoing Russian-American collaboration, the conference organizers are already planning next year’s Forum, which will likely be held in the United States.  Individuals who are interested in participating should contact Dr. Ronald Hughes at IHS.

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For more information, please contact:

Judith S. Rycus, Ph.D., MSW, Program Director
Institute for Human Services and North American Resource Center for Child Welfare
1706 E. Broad Street, Columbus, OH 43203
E-mail:  Judith Rycus
Phone: 614-251-6000