BOURGAS MUNICIPALITY NEW SOCIAL SERVICES FOR DISABLED CHILDREN IN BOURGAS MUNICIPALITY

Bourgas Municipality with an area of dk is the largest municipality in the South-Eastern Bulgaria. It is located on the Black Sea coast and surrounds the largest gulf of the Bulgarian Black Sea coast – the Bourgas Gulf. Coastal part of the Municipality is occupied by the Atanasovo, Manderen and Bourgas (Vaya) lakes, which together with the Pomorie Lake form the largest complex of coastal lakes in Bulgaria. These lakes are remarkably rich in biodiversity being situated along one of the main migration paths of the European migratory birds – Via Pontica. The population of Bourgas Municipality amounts to , which accounts for 51% of the population living in Bourgas District and 3% of the population of Bulgaria. Actually, the 2011 census showed that the Municipality is fourth in the country by population.

Social Welfare, Healthcare and Sports Department professionally and in partnership with other entities implements local policies in the areas of: o Healthcare and prevention, o Sports, o Social activities and employment, o through development of high quality activities and services for all categories of citizens living on the territory of Bourgas Municipality. Department’s operations are based on the concept that the services need to be affordable, accessible, high-quality and effective, relevant to the needs of the clients, which thanks to the committed participation of all stakeholders, ensure social inclusion, life in a supportive environment and full-fledged involvement.

In the social activities section: Main areas of operation cover social and administrative activities in special residential institution and community services for children, people at risk, people with physical, sensory and other impairments, people with mental health problems, victims of violence and human trafficking, elderly and people living alone; - Partnership with NGOs, government agencies and media. - Bourgas Municipality provides financial support to NGOs. Funding worth BGN is allocated in the 2014 budget for 44 organisations. -In the course of implementation of the entire reform for better quality of care and improved life-situation of children in special institutions, Bourgas Municipality works on different national and municipal strategies for child protection looking after the best interest of the child. Helping professionals provide support to families and create the best possible conditions for the development of the child up to the point when the full capacity of the child is reached; they work for decreasing the number of children in institutions and ultimate closure of these institutions for children.

As part of the process of deinstitutionalisation of children in Bulgaria, Bourgas Municipality completed all activities providing for the closure of the residential institutions for children deprived of parental care Al.G,Kodjakafaliyata and setting up of community based services – Family-type Residential Centre. 01 st September 2013 marked the end of institutional care for children deprived of parental care. Children were moved to the newly built Family-type Residential Centres and residents over 18-years of age – to a Protected House. Bourgas Municipality implements a foster care project. I Have a Family, too Project under the Human Resources Development Operational Programme 2007 – 2013, direct funding scheme BG051PO Accept Me. Bourgas Municipality is a partner to the Social Assistance Agency in this project. Overall Objective: To support the process of deinstitutionalisation of children by creating and implementing a sustainable model of substituent family care for children placed in special institutions or children at risk of abandonment.

Helping professionals of Bourgas Municipality are part of the teams on implementation of the Coordination Mechanism for Cooperation in Case-Work with Children Victims of Violence or at Risk of such and for Collaboration in Crisis Interventions. The partnership with government agencies results in sharing resources and efforts of all parties involved in order to arrive at a more effective system for cooperation in cases when urgent interventions are needed for children victims of violence or at risk of such in order to ensure their rights. Bourgas Municipality enjoys effective functioning of a Child Commission. Upon an initiative of the Commission a proposal was drafted and submitted to the Municipal Council of Bourgas, which resulted in allocation of extra BGN to support new foster families. Each family is granted an aid of BGN Each year Municipal Child Protection Programme is successfully developed and implemented..

The Social Welfare, Healthcare and Sports Department with the Bourgas Municipality runs the following community-based services for children: Day-care Centre for Street Children; Ron Cali Family-type Residential Centre; St. Nicholas the Thaumaturge Day-care Centre for Children with Physical and Multiple Impairments; Crisis Centre for Children and Adults Victims of Violence; Family-type Residential Centre 1,2,3; Centre for Social Rehabilitation and Integration of Children Victims of Abuse; Community Support Centre (inclusive); Emergency Placements Centre and Working with Disabled Children; 5 newly built Family-type Residential Centre for disabled children and children deprived of parental care; Faith, Hope and Love Social and Medical Care Service

Day-care Centre for Street Children works to meet the basic needs and provide day care for social integration of 17 street children (8 boys and 9 girls) and their families. Children are aged between 8 and 16 years. Four Family-type Residential Centres accommodate 38 children deprived of parental care; Crisis Centre for Children and Adults Victims of Abuse. Main Objective of the Crisis Centre Service is to offer professional help to children and adults victims of abuse of human trafficking by providing them safe environment for recovery with a complex of social, psychological, medical, legal and family counselling.

St. Nicholas the Thaumaturge Day-care Centre for Children with Physical and Multiple Impairments The Service provided by the St. Nicholas the Thaumaturge Day- care Centre is daily service for disabled children. 24 children split in three groups and their age varies between 5 and 16. The work is performed on individual and group basis depending on the needs of the child. Activities include: group social work, individual speech therapy, psychological, rehabilitation, art-therapy and learning classes. 13 children are taught by teachers of the Special School and 8 attend mainstream school.

Faith, Hope and Love Social and Medical Care Service The service provides children and their families with: diagnosis, диагностика, treatment and rehabilitation; complex care in raising children; 24 hours medical observation; health prevention; counselling of parents with developmental problems; Designing a programme for working with the child at home. Provision of medical and social services in different forms of care based on the needs; maintaining family-type model of care for children at risk; integration of children in society. Children and families targeted by the Social and Medical Care Service are: Children and families at risk; children deprived of parental care; children subjected to bullying, abuse and violence, abandoned children, disabled children, children born at risk and low weight. Day-Care Centre The Day-Care Complex has a capacity to serve 46 clients. It is comprised of a day-care facility with 31 beds, weekly care centre with 15 beds and a Rehabilitation Centre. The sensor room is scheduled for daily attendance by children with special needs. Sessions are run by a psychologist are are designed to meet the needs of the children. The Rehabilitation Centre occupies 6 rooms fully equipped with rehabilitation tools for physical therapy.

Community Support Centre (CSC) provides social services in the community sustaining a piloted practice and introducing new mechanisms for effective and high quality services. The Bourgas Municipality CSC has a capacity of serving one hundred cases a month but given the growing number of people in need of social services CSC keeps working over its capacity all the time. Services offered at the CSC : Social counselling Psychological counselling Family counselling Mediation Escort / assistance Educational Support Social work with children from special institutions Design and development of workshops and clubs; Group training sessions for foster parents and support in raising children Day-care for disabled children from 6 to 18 years of age Outpatient care for disabled children – rehabilitation from 0 to 18 years of age Speech therapy for children 4 – 18 years pf age 24-hours care for children at risk aged 4 – 18 years at the Emergency Admission Centre

. Good Practices : Driven by the desire to adapt the building and the services to the needs of the children, we constantly look for opportunities to develop new activities and services, to motivate children to come to the CSC regardless of the reasons that cause the need of social services. In order to improve the quality of services provided to the children in town, to offer complex organisation of the CSC clients’ free time and improve physical facilities of the service, the work and work premises were subjected to restructuring. A ‘Blue Room’ resulted from joint efforts to create better conditions for the children to participate in legal proceedings and meet their needs by developing services for minors victims of violence who are going to testify in court. An environment has been created to make the child feel safe and protected in order to release the stress and any follow-up trauma of children – victims or witnesses.

Deinstitutionalisation of Services for Disabled Children and Youngsters BG051PO С0001 Project: Living in the Family – a New Chance for Disabled Children and Youngsters in Bourgas Municipality has been developed under the funding scheme No Child to be Left Behind and following the priorities of the key policy document, namely Vision for Deinstitutionalisation of Children in Bulgaria National Strategy. The project provides for setting up, running and developing residential social services for children at risk and their families.

Bourgas Municipality established five Family-type Residential Centres as part of the implementation of the National Residential Services Map – four Family-type Residential Centres accommodate children and young adults with disabilities and one is for children who left the residential facility for children deprived of parental care. Seventy children and youngsters, 65 staff as prescribed by the Methodology on the Staff Positions in the specialised institutions and community based services.

Children and youngsters are moved out of the special institutions for children with intellectual disabilities, for children with physical impairments and out of the institutions for medical and social care for children, disabled children being placed in institutions for children deprived of parental care thus having exhausted all options for re-integration in the biological family or placement in larger family. The whole environment has to meet the needs of the children – location, design, furniture, bathrooms, kitchens, bedrooms and shared living rooms.

CHALLENGES: Challenges are out there through the whole process. Low financial standard, which is not enough to cover the costs of the children and youngsters placed in the services. No distinction is made in the standard between non-disabled children deprived of parental care and children with multiple impairments. Turnover of caregivers, low salaries. No interest on the part of nurses to work there, low salaries. There is no child psychiatrist in Bourgas. New environment and new staff for the children and youngsters. All problems are worth solving because children change for good, they grow physically, become calm and develop emotionally. The care provided to the children make them understand that they are liked and loved.

ТАЗИ БЯЛА ЛЯСТОВИЦА ЖИВЕЕ В БУРГАСКИЯТ КВАРТАЛ „ГОРНО ЕЗЕРОВО“ LET THIS WHITE BIRD BRING GOOD LUCK AND BETTER LIFE FOR ALL CHILDREN IN BULGARIA.

THANK YOU!