More Ukrainian regions join Veteran's Assistant project, providing support to soldiers
Another five regions will join the experimental project of the Ukrainian government to introduce the veteran's assistant institute.
The Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories reported this on Telegram.
What is the problem?
After the victory, Ukraine will have at least 1.5 million veterans needing special attention and care. The family members of veterans and the families of fallen soldiers will also be the focus of special priority care of the state and, in addition, several million more people. During the brutal war, many Ukrainian soldiers also lost their homes and jobs, their physical and mental health changed, and they became completely different personally in some aspects.
Relying on the demand already existing in the country and known foreign experience, the Ukrainian government felt a need to start and develop a virtually new service and profession with a powerful social function. The Ministry of Veterans introduced the Institute of the Veteran's Assistant as part of the territorial communities.
What is the solution?
"In four regions — Vinnytsia, Lviv, Mykolaiv, and Dnipropetrovsk — more than 200 applications have already been submitted by those wishing to join the Veteran's Assistant experimental project," the statement reads.
The Ministry of Reintegration noted that commissions had been created in these regions to interview veterans' assistant candidates. The selected participants will be sent to study and later employment in August.
Five more regions — Zakarpattia, Sumy, Kyiv, Poltava, and Kharkiv — expressed their desire to join this project.
How does it work?
According to Iryna Vereshchuk, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, such an initiative, if successfully implemented, will have a national scope. The application for participation in the Veteran's Assistant project can be submitted on the e-Veteran platform.
After a successful stage of competitive selection, candidates for the positions of veteran assistants will undergo specialized training. In the future, they will be employed at the Service Office for Veterans Affairs in one of the regions participating in the Ministry of Veterans Affairs pilot project.
Three-level funding is provided during the experimental testing of veteran's assistant offices in territorial communities. The sources here are state and local budgets and development partners. Currently, the salary of an assistant is 16,000 hryvnias on average. Funds for this purpose are in the state budget (Ministry of Veterans Affairs).
The work of the veteran's assistants will be paid following the provided acts of work they performed (services rendered). The veteran's assistant will report on their work to the head of the service office and the regional administration. In turn, the regional military administration will inform the Miniveterans. The assessment criteria will be quantitative and qualitative indicators of timeliness, availability, accuracy, and compliance of the provided services with the needs of the participants of the experimental project.
