Social Innovations in Early Childhood Intervention

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ABOUT THE ORGANISATION:
For Our Children Foundation
For Our Children Foundation is a successor to the
British organization for protecting children’s rights,
EveryChild, and has been working in Bulgaria since
1992. It is the first Bulgarian non-governmental or-
ganization to introduce foster care, starting as early
as 1997. Today, the Foundation is working to make
sure that no Bulgarian child spends the first years
of his or her life in the isolation of an institution, but
lives safe and loved in a family environment.
The services for children are provided in several spe-
cialized community support centres in the two larg-
est cities of Bulgaria, Sofia and Plovdiv. The services
are intended for children in the early age groups,
specifically children 0–3 years, the prematurely born,
and children with disabilities, at risk of developing
disabilities, or with developmental difficulties.
Over the last three years, For Our Children Foun-
dation has provided a variety of services to more
than 2,300 children. In 2015 alone, the organization
worked with 1,095 children and their families, includ-
ing 148 children in the Early Childhood Intervention
programme.
The For Our Children Foundation offers more servic-
es, which are linked to the Early Childhood Interven-
tion programme. These include the prevention of
child abandonment in maternity wards, development
of parental capacity, family support, and foster
care. The clients of all the services provided by the
Foundation have the opportunity to make use of the
ECI services, if needed.
For Our Children Foundation
Bulgaria
Ms. Anelia Spasova
Tel.+359 88 491 7822
DEINSTITUTIONALISATION IN BULGARIA:
A long way to go
• Current deinstitutionalisation policies – for
both children and adults with disabilities
– provide for care in small group homes
(SGH), which does not significantly improve
the quality of life that disabled people live.
• SGH are managed as residential institu-
tions. As such, residents are not in control
of their daily activities and are not offered
the opportunity to move to a community
arrangement.
• The European Social Fund is helping mu-
nicipalities to provide community residen-
tial services, such as monitored housing,
protected housing, day-care centres, and
centres for social rehabilitation and inte-
gration.
ABOUT ZERO PROJECT ANAYLSIS
In-depth Research of Innovative Practices
EASPD Secretary General: Luk Zelderloo
Essl Foundation Programme Manager: Michael Fembek
Author: Wilfried Kainz
Project coordinator: Sabrina Ferraina
Graphic Design: Christoph Almasy
Graphic Facilitation: Petra Plicka
Editing: John Tessitore
This in-depth analysis can be downloaded for free at
and
For information or copies, contact:office@zeroproject.org
Essl Foundation, Aufeldgasse 17-23, 3400 Klosterneuburg, Austria
© Essl Foundation and EASPD, April 2016. All rights reserved.