Activities - National and European working groups to develop national common methodologies on leaving care, national protocols and transnational recommendations. - Pilot action-training for professionals and train-of-trainers on leaving alternative care. - One-place support for careleavers, workshops and mentorships programmes preparing and supporting for an independent life.

Type and number of persons: - 320 professionals receiving training; 30 careleavers representatives involved in the project; 130 soon to be careleavers receiving training; 30 young people participating in other project activities; 74 child protection professionals; 35 local authorities; 51 academia; 35 national authorities; 80 people from NGOs/CSOs; 85 EU policy makers; 40 general public.

Expected results

WP2: institutions working in alternative care cooperate for the implementation of leaving care working methods.

-WP3: care leaving of all children in BG, HR and PT is addressed before children age out of/leave alternative care. –

WP4: aftercare support is ensured to all children and youth after leaving alternative care in Bulgaria, Croatia and Portugal.

Type and number of deliverables:

Communication material, tools and activities: -1 communication plan; 1 website; 1 online platform; 3 seminars; 3 National Forums; 1 hearing in European Parliament.

Working groups and activities: -4 documents of common National methodology; 4 National protocols; 1 experts committee recommendations

Training material and activities: -17 trainings; 8 training manuals; 6 networks; 6 resource guides; 13 workshops; 4 mentorship

Under WP 2, the measures foreseen in the action plan will be sensitive to the context of each participating country and coordinated among all the involved stakeholders, including State institutions (namely, social security, ministry of education, child protective services), careleavers representatives, academic experts and residential care institutions. This will allow to address national gaps on rights of the child policies and the formulation of structured alternative methods to create national best practices that are also transferable to other European countries.

Regarding WP 3, the framework defined in WP1 will serve as a guide in order to develop a pilot-action training for professionals and to create a training manual for trainers, that is both transferable across European nations and readily available for national institutions/professionals. The preparation of the training program and manual will address identified country-specific needs and will be sensitive to cultural and structural differences. The established guidelines from “A training manual for care professionals working with children in alternative care”[15], the manual from SOS Villages International, will be considered along this process and training modules will be defined according to it and to the “Umbrella Program” presented by Del Valle & Fuertes (2000)[16] and Del Valle & Garcia Quintanal (2006)[17]. Professionals will then be better prepared to implement measures for care leaving. Additionally, a training course for trainers will also be implemented in order to extend this knowledge and new methodologies to the largest possible number of involved professionals. This will ensure overall support, sustainability and renewability of the training sessions as well as the uptake of all the developed alternative methods. All the developed strategies will include the input of representatives of youth in leaving care.

WP 4 will ensure the empowerment and capacity-building of careleavers by providing supportive services for after care. The strategies proposed within this WP were developed with the contribution of representatives of youth in leaving care and were designed to answer their specific needs. In this WP, an integrated intervention involving residential care institutions, foster parents, social welfare professionals and other community services will be established to provide support on social, psychological, health and employment levels, in order to improve autonomy of careleavers. These activities will promote an effective implementation of practical measures and will also ensure project’s sustainability.