Aspects of Social Inclusion of Young People Leaving the Child Protection Institutions

Abstract

The issue of social inclusion of young people who come from child protection system in Romania was and still is at the center of concerns of decision makers in the system, especially due to the fact that much of the effort focused in the last 25 years on this effect, apparently produced no substantial changes in terms of integration into society of the category of young people leaving the child protection system. In post-communist Romania, the legal framework that is governing the creation and diversification of services oriented to preparing young people for independent living has developed. How these regulations are implemented depend upon the concerns of the social actors invested with responsibilities in this field locally. This paper aims, on the one hand, to highlight the specific problems faced by this group of young people and, on the other hand, to capture specific aspects of life strategies adopted by individuals in this category, as reactions to the measures taken by social actors invested with specific responsibilities. The study was conducted in Oradea, including both young people from the protection system and professionals who interact with them.

Keywords: post-institutionalized young people, social inclusion, dependency, subculture of reliance on institutions