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Support for young people who have grown up in institutions

Young people who have been brought up in social institutions caring for kids deprived of parental care, have hard time trying to integrate in society. Their chances of personal success are much slimmer than the chances of their coevals coming from an average family. The foundation Movement of Bulgarian Mothers has for a few years now been working to create further opportunities for such young people for social integration, training and professional development. This has mostly happened under the project Protected Home Together. Recently however the NGO launched a second project: SIY, Social Integration of Youths financed by the European Social Fund. Under it 20 young people aged from 18 to 26 in the course of one year will receive personalized support depending on their needs. The objective is to improve their lifestyles by beating social exclusion and its consequences. All young people who have turned 18 and have left a specialized institution, are free to apply. “One the basic things that we expect from them is an ambition to cope on their own, the will to study or get trained, because one of the objectives is to give them a chance for qualification”, explains Karolina Shoileva from Movement of Bulgarian Mothers Foundation, the coordinator of the project. The young people will be offered two free courses and those who have not graduated from secondary school will be able to do so. What are the problems that such young people are most often faced with?

“The problems they face might seem too simple for anybody who has grown up in a family”, Karolina Shoileva says. “For example, it is a challenge for them to run the household, to draw up a budget , to pay their rent on time, to know how to sign labor contracts and to visit their GP. Young people brought up in institutions have not seen enough examples to teach them how to run simple everyday tasks.”

Here is more about the specific assistance that will be given to them:

“In this project the services are performed by a social worker, a psychologist and a lawyer. The social worker keeps in touch with them, visits them at home and advises them how to run their household. The psychologist will try to improve young people’s capacities to resolve problems, to do decision-making and to manage themselves emotionally. The lawyer will provide consultations on labor contracts, labor rights etc. He is the one to tell them what their obligations as citizens are – apart from explaining them their rights. Many of the children who have grown up in special institutions do have biological relatives, and though biological relatives have not taken care of them, the young people do have obligations to cover their outstanding loans for example, in the event of death. This is absurd, so our lawyer will tell them how to act, so as to protect their best interests.”