Support for care-leaving young people having grown up in residential care – investment of high return Donika Koleva head of the Programmes Development Department 31 October 2014 SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGES BULGARIA

EUROPEAN COMMISSION’S RECOMMENDATIONS of 20 February 2013 Enhance family support and the quality of alternative care settings: Ensure that children without parental care have access to quality services (both mainstream and specific services) related to their health, education, employment, social assistance, security and housing situation, including during their transition to adulthood; Mobilise relevant EU financial instruments : Support the development of more evidence-based policies and social innovation through the Programme for Social Change and Innovation, the European Social Fund and Horizon 2020, and use these programmes to test, evaluate and scale up possible policy innovations ;

ACHIEVED TO DATE  A large number of NGOs – a variety of practices  A concept was developed for work with young people over 15 years of age who are about to leave care; to prepare them to leave care and start independent life  Transitional home and observed home – regulated as social services  Guidelines for the work of professionals and for training of young people for independent life  Training of staff at specialised institutions (residential care centres for parentless children)

SERIOUSNESS OF THE PROBLEM ‘… We have our home, a warm bed and food and suddenly we graduate from the 12 th grade and we turn out to be on our own in a world we do not know and do not understand. Words such as budget, accounts, expenses are totally unfamiliar. Our options are to be a cleaner, construction worker, shop assistant or the easy way out – a prostitute or criminal’. ‘In the First Person – young people having lived in care, consultants of deinstitutionalisation’, 2013 Know-How Centre for Alternative Child Care

SERIOUSNESS OF THE PROBLEM  Formally leaving residential care does not correspond to or take into account the economic independence of young people and their social maturity;  Young people who have lived for long in residential care environment most often cannot rely on the natural support of their biological family, regardless of the contacts with them;  Another difficult-to-solve problem is the dwelling and its rent and the first job – the first couple of months of independent life of young people often are associated with higher costs for basic needs;  The social inclusion in society and the access to health, social and other services relates to the formal registration in various institutions which requires further counselling of the young

START OF INDEPENDENT LIFE PROGRAMME Forms of support:  Counselling regarding civil rights, access and interaction with various state institutions;  Counselling and support to find and start work (labour and legal counselling);  Counselling and support to find a dwelling (rental relations, rental contract, etc);  Counselling on access to medical care (insurance);  Support to improve vocational qualification and retraining;  Counselling on risk behaviour and life crises;  Financial and resource support;  Emotional support

START OF INDEPENDENT LIFE PROGRAMME Case-by-case approach and involvement of the young person  Case-by-case planning of the development, which serves as a basis to define financial support;  Monthly formal meetings with the young person at the family-type care centre;  Visits to the young person’s place and workplace (respecting his/her privacy);  Contact by telephone or or a social network

START OF INDEPENDENT LIFE PROGRAMME Facts and figures  Programme launch  253 young people covered by the programme (at the moment and in the past)  Working  Studying at universities – 29 now  Having started a family  They are good parents  Over 90% of those leaving care are successful  Size of the financial investment for 2013  BGN 2,000/ young person on average

THANK YOU FOR THE ATTENTION!