Meetings and events

Riga, 19^th February 2008: a conference to talk about care-leavers

Riga hosted the first phase of the research project with the International Conference sponsored by the association Amici dei Bambini in collaboration with the Latvian Ministry for Children and the Family, entitled "Life after institutional care": a first opportunity for discussion between European institutions and experts on the reality of  care-leavers, i.e. young people (indicatively between 18 and 29) who, when they reach adulthood or after finishing their studies, have to leave state care.

  

Social exclusion is the first risk facing these young people. This was the main topic of this international meeting and privileged venue for a preliminary exchange of data and opinions. On the one hand, the condition in which young care-leavers in Europe live was illustrated, first of all in Latvia, and on the other hand the social policies promoted by European governments in favour of adolescents who, for the first time, have to face life outside the institute.

During the day of the Conference, the participants tried to examine in depth the degree of implementation of services for young people without families in the countries that have recently joined the European Union and, on the other hand, the  difficulties still existing.

From these first exchanges, the confirmation of an indicative and dispiriting fact emerged:  care-leavers are the victims of a double abandonment, by their biological family and by society which often forgets about them, leaving them on the sidelines, with socially serious consequences such as marginalization, criminality and prostitution.