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 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.

Project details

Project info
Period
2014-2021
Project Website
https://www.usmev.sk/
Approval date
Grant financing
76925.00€
Final project cost
86920.42€

Related

Programmes
Countries