PATHWAYS TO FREEDOM
Project, supporting young people leaving alternative care facilities in Bulgaria
Advocacy activity in the "Pathways to Freedom" project is a natural result of the long-term efforts and work of the Association's team in the direction of advocating for the interests and needs of young people leaving alternative care in Bulgaria before the responsible institutions and authorities.
In 2019, the Association developed and published an extensive report and detailed sociological research to propose recommendations based on data and results to create a new legal and policy framework to support young people starting their independent lives after care.
The research and its conclusions and recommendations are based on the conducted:
- 5 discussions in focus groups;
- 28 semi-structured interviews;
- 15 observations of different types of services in four researched regions;
- quantitative studies.
Get to know the research
"From care to independence: rights and needs of young people leaving and leaving alternative care in Bulgaria":
DOWNLOAD FROM HERE:
With the project "Pathways to Freedom" our goal was to continue our efforts to achieve commitment by the state and introduce a social service in support of young people who leave care.
We started the project with a series of information meetings in the municipalities where we planned to implement the projec.
We continued with several webinars in which we discussed with other organizations providing similar support the current problems of young people leaving care and how we can join forces in the campaign and communication with national authorities.
At the Final Conference in October 2022, all participants united around a Call to action to the Bulgarian government to adopt a social service in support of young people leaving care - announced and adopted during the Final Conference of the project.
Call to action: download (only in BG language)
On April 6, 2023, we held a workshop "Young people leaving alternative care – between self-reliance and reality", where together with representatives of national and local authorities we discussed the problems and opportunities for supporting the target group.
The project gave us the opportunity to develop in detail a Standard for Social Service in support of young people leaving care.
You can read more about the Social Service Standard developed under the project "Paths to Freedom" HERE!
Our approach to research needs and beneficiaries, study practices in other countries and then develop the social service methodology gives us confidence that it is needed, quality and has a future among users and providers.
