Research on Factors Affecting Integration of Children from Foster Care into the Society and their Adaptation to the Labor Market

This paper introduces a four-year long project, focused on mapping the factors influencing integration into society of children leaving the institutional care. There are many children failing to integrate into the society and adapt on labour market after leaving the care. Although there are non-profit organizations assisting those children, the effectivity of their interventions has not been evaluated and the data about what happens to young adults leaving the institutional care have not been systematically collected.

The current results reached during the first year of the project will be discussed. First, interviews about factors affecting the adaptation were hold with those who left institutional care more than 10 years ago. Next, factors supposedly leading to a successful adaptation will be observed on a sample of 500 people. Finally, the effect of different forms of assistance on the integration into the labour market will be observed on those who have left institutional care during the last 3 years. After the four-year period this project will offer an in-depth look on factors affecting the integration/adaptation of the previously described group and will include suggestions for incorporating these factors into the operations manuals for coordinators, mentors and lecturers of the project’s partner.