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Description
In Slovakia, more than 5,000 children and young people live in institutional care, who are a vulnerable group due to the lack of a safe family environment. The environment of centres for children and families (former children''s homes) often does not create conditions for building skills for independence.
The project is aimed at young adults from centres for children and families, which will help them with better and easier integration into society. Activities include educating young adults using modern technology, providing support services in the form of professional counselling and volunteering. Education will cover a range of topics - financial literacy, increasing competencies to offices, career counselling, housing, partnerships and parenthood, self-esteem, motivation, communication, coping with the past and increasing mental resilience.
Project partner - Norwegian organization Fundatum has extensive experience with progressive methods of educating young people in the field of personal development with an emphasis on supporting the identity, motivation and value of the individual, the development of his interpersonal relationships and his contribution to society. The partnership aims to strengthen the position of young people and their participation in public events and the active involvement of the individual in society. The role of this project partner is to support exchanges, sharing good practice concerning the education of young adults and volunteer mentors/guides.
The role of the Faculty of Law of Matej Bel University in the project will be to provide relevant, up-to-date and practical information and to develop the legal awareness of young adults in the areas of labor law, civil law and social security law in the form of educational activities.
The project is intended to benefit young adults in the center for children and families and young adults after leaving the centers for children and families and their families.
Summary of project results
Young adults from centers for children and families are a demonstrably vulnerable group who, compared to the population of children growing up in families, get into problems and difficult situations at a significantly higher rate after separation. Misconceptions about them and their families often prevail in society, which make their situation even more difficult.
The project created an opportunity for young adults to expand the knowledge and skills necessary for successful independence. By involving experts and volunteer guides, a support network has been created to help prevent and solve problems they may find themselves in. Thanks to the project, the quality of the system of preparing young adults for independence, which is implemented by the youth organization in centers for children and families, has improved.
The acquired practical experience and knowledge were transferred within the organization. The project was not only important at the level of the individuals involved, as communication to the outside opened up this topic to the public as well. The organization held three weekend stays, one conference, three legal minimum workshops, and 34 online educational and development activities for young adults. The project implementers created and distributed the Legal Minimum Manual and the Do života manual for young adults, thanks to which the project''s outputs are also available to young adults who did not directly participate in the project and to other helping organizations that work with at-risk youth.
Also, for further education and awareness, the www.usmev.sk/do-zivota sub-site with audiovisual content is publicly available, which contains 31 (instead of the planned 15) compilations of statements of inmates from centers for children and families, 5 graphic instructional videos and 4 medallions of homes on half way. This website is a living library of experiences and the most common problems that foster children struggle with. The project implementers created a system and manual for recruiting, training, caring for volunteers, guides and connecting them with young adults, which was also made available outside our organization to other helping organizations. During the project, this program recruited and retained 18 volunteers.
Summary of bilateral results
Cooperation with a bilateral partner brought a new quality to the project''s activities aimed at preparing for independence and a new way of looking at the activities that the organization implements with young adults. The project implementers had the opportunity to see how, thanks to the integrated system, the Norwegian Department of Social Protection can monitor the situation and reintegration of young people into society after the end of foster care. The project implementers got to know the Windjammer project of the Fundatum organization in more detail. It is aimed at the NEET (not in education, employment or training) target group, i.e. young people who are not preparing for a profession and are not employed. Both educational programs – Slovak and Norwegian – are very experiential, focused mainly on self-discovery and the development of life skills. The project implementers had the opportunity to be inspired by specific activities, to explore in depth the similarities and differences in approaches, activities, target groups and their advantages and disadvantages. The cooperation specifically encouraged the project implementers to think about opening the program to a wider group of disadvantaged people and also to search for participants through a selection process and not a recruitment process, as they have done so far - the potential benefit can be seen mainly in the diversity of the group and the motivation of the participants. The partnership contributed to a better understanding of the functioning of social systems in both countries and the differences between them. Possible bilateral cooperation in the form of further education or exchange of experience at a conference in Slovakia was outlined.