news
slide

LeaveCareLiveLife project launches in Zagreb

LeaveCare-LiveLife, a project designed to increase youth participation in decisions made on EU care leaver policies, has launched this week in Zagreb with over 40 care leavers directly participating.

FICE Croatia, Eurochild candidate member (to be endorsed at the next General Assembly), are partners in the “LeaveCare-LiveLife” project, bringing together over 40 young care leavers this week in Zagreb. They will work for five days to develop recommendations for better care services. The Care Leavers are representing Croatia, United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine.  The recommendations developed through their mutual knowledge of care services will be delivered to European-level decision makers, in preparation for the final conference at the premises of the EU institutions in Brussels in the early months of 2020.

This joint training experience is the third step of the Erasmus Plus Programme funded project titled "LeaveCare-LiveLife: Building the European Care Leavers Network for Youngsters Leaving Foster and Residential Care and Actively Living and Participating in Life”. Launched in December 2017, the project will last 28 months. It is designed to give young care leavers (those who are leaving the community, foster care, or a family home) the tools to be better prepared for their future independent lives. The project partners include Associazione Agevolando from Italy as the project leader, FICE Croatia, Care Leavers Association from the United Kingdom, Care Leavers Network Ireland and TIBERIUS Association from Romania.A

The project has already been agreed and tested with more than 150 youngsters as a good methodology of group participation. The Care Leavers Participation Groups (CLPGs) will provide their recommendations to the decision makers, professionals, and journalists to help improve the situation of care leavers.  We have held training for the associations’ staff in Maynooth, Ireland, and a further training conference for 30 professionals – educators, social workers, and psychologists from the partners’ countries in Bucharest, Romania. The two training sessions were aimed at increasing awareness regarding the issue of youth participation in leaving care and to promote a change in mentality towards the active role of young people in the decisions affecting their lives. 

In addition, the project will create a virtual exchange platform for young people with care experience: offering another level of support (alongside in person, direct exchanges) as a space for their participation and active citizenship. Beyond the project, partners are creating the European Care Leavers Network, a stable organization based in Brussels that will protect the rights of care leavers in every EU country through direct action. Policies and legislation about leaving the care system can significantly differ across Europe.

Using the voices of care leavers, their youth participation, and their direct experience of leaving care, LeaveCare-LiveLife aims to promote a change in mentality towards the role of young people in decisions affecting their lives. The final aim of these promoted activities is to achieve a better situation for care leavers in every EU country and to inform and change legislations and policies at EU and national levels. 




Related News/Events

slide
12 February 2024

New UNICEF report on children in alternative care: Pathways to Better Protection

New regional analyses now available on latest data available on children in alternative care and adoption across Europe and Central Asia. UNICEF ECARO has published its new regional TransMonEE analytical…
read more
slide
12 February 2024

The Museum of Abandonment - Digital Art and Restorative Justice in Romania

Blog by Ioana Calinescu, co-founder of the Museum of Abandonment, a socio-cultural civil society organisation participating in Eurochild member FONPC’s Ukraine humanitarian aid response programme. The Museum of Abandonment is a…
read more
slide
15 November 2023

European Parliament acknowledges link between institutions and trafficking

Following the suggested amendments to the revised EU Anti-Trafficking Directive by CSOs, MEPs formally recognise trafficking links to institutionalisation in latest directive. In March 2023, Hope and Homes for Children,…
read more