Our Amazing Staff
Over time, Last Bell’s structure has changed considerably. Ten years ago, the Shelter was our only program. Today we operate two key facilities, the Shelter and the Day Center – along with much activity across the city of Zhytomyr. Last Bell staff can be found working in nearly twenty trade schools and social dormitories, our young people’s inherited homes, and interacting with other humanitarian organizations to serve orphanage graduates.
We hope you’ll enjoy this reintroduction to our programs and our incredible staff. Because Last Bell is a relationship-oriented organization, we don’t just plug a young person into a program, since they often need very holistic services. Our staff members truly work as a team, with several serving in more than one program.
Educational Outreach
Our first point of contact with orphanage graduates in Zhytomyr is our Educational Outreach program. We teach life skills classes to orphan students in Zhytomyr’s trade schools, we host gatherings for them, and of course we get to know these young people one-on-one. Lena Voznyuk spearheads this program. Because we’re serving increasing numbers of youth from the local trade schools, many of our staff members spend significant amounts of time with them, including Nastya Konsedailo, Abram and Tanya Krevoruchko, Vasya and Luba Yaroshuk, and Vitya and Lena Andrusenko.
About once a month we host a big Youth Group gathering (70+ students) and everyone on staff helps. Tanya Krevuchko offers academic lessons to help students pass their college entrance exams; and Yulia Los fills in for the life skills teaching team.
Day Center
All orphanage graduates have practical needs. In our Day Center, the list of services includes legal advice and advocacy (Simeon Shulgin) and English lessons (Yulia Los). Yulia is the administrator of the Day Center, welcoming the young people who drop in – many of whom come to use the washing machine, shower, or play foosball and have a snack.
The Day Center is also our administrative office. From here (and his van), our director, Andrey Pankyeyev, leads the ministry. Along with legal counseling, Simeon Shulgin manages our bookkeeping. Olga Antonova is our expert translator, regularly making stories available to our English-speaking friends.
Shelter Crisis Housing
The newest program is a reformatting of the Shelter building into transitional and crisis housing. It’s an offshoot of Stop the Cycle in which orphanage graduates, especially young single mothers, are safely housed in our newly renovated Shelter facility. Some escaped dangerous, unhealthy situations. Most were in deep poverty.
All need mentorship and support in learning how to parent well and become independent. Oksana Pankyeyeva, who runs our Stop the Cycle program, works out of the Shelter facility, mentoring our young moms and offering Biblical counseling services to all our young people. Anna Cherniy is the facility’s full-time house manager during the week, organizing child care and meals. Yulia Los offers crafts for both moms and kids; and Tanya Krevorushko helps as well.
Yulia Sagaidachna, a Stop The Cycle veteran herself, is our newest staff member at Shelter Crisis Housing. She attends to the many needs of our moms and children (her nursing background is invaluable). Her skills and past mentoring have prepared her to help Last Bell launch Ukraine’s first-ever MOPS program in late 2017.
Stop the Cycle
When orphanage graduates begin having children of their own, they need a community to lean on. Stop the Cycle offers this, alongside parenting classes, mentorship, help with groceries and baby supplies, advocacy in medical crises, and the modeling of positive relationships. Oksana Pankyeyeva heads this program; the Yaroshuks and Andrusenkos are deeply involved as well. Several of our staff and volunteers help by driving moms and children to and from meetings or other appointments. Nastya Konsedailo and Lena Voznyuk offer Bible lessons for children during their mothers’ Stop the Cycle meetings. The young moms living at Shelter Crisis Housing also access these services.
Restoration Project
Restoration Project is led by Sergei Cherniy and employs a team of orphanage graduate men. They receive steady employment and vocational training in the building trade – while being discipled by a godly man. The team renovates orphanage graduates’ inherited homes and apartments. Some orphanage graduates inherit a dwelling, but these are almost always unsafe and uninhabitable. In this program’s first year (2016), the crew renovated five homes. We’re dreaming of ways to make safe housing widely available to more of our youth.
Relationships
What about our oldest orphanage graduates who were part of our original Shelter, Haven, and the more recent Shelter residential program? They haven’t been left behind. Our emphasis on relationships means the staff members who worked most closely with those young adults continue to keep in touch with them, often by phone or text but also gathering for our semi-annual graduate reunions. Each year we see more of our older youth volunteering to serve alongside their Last Bell mentors.