As we previously launched – May 2019 as Month for disseminating InnoSchool results on social needs mapping, today we analyze Bulgarian trends. 

The social need identified by Bulgaria on a regional level, more exactly Blagoevgrad District, was prevention of children at risk. In recent years, the term ''child at risk'' has been increasingly used in Bulgaria, when it comes talking about children who are at risk of losing their lives, health, opportunities for personal development and education, or when they themselves pose a risk to society with their actions. According to Eurostat, children are the age group that is at the highest risk of poverty and social exclusion. Children growing up in poverty are deprived of the opportunity to meet basic needs of good food and appropriate clothing, are limited in their access to education and health. Therefore, they are at risk of being involved in severe forms of child labor, trafficking or committing a crime themselves.

The alerts for children at risk submitted to the Social Assistance Directorates in 2016 in the district of Blagoevgrad were 1109. At the same time 79 cases of violence against children were reported.  Justice for children is the topic almost absent from regional and municipal policies in Blagoevgrad district. Child justice is mentioned only in the context of children in conflict with the law and victims of traffic. According to National Statistical Institute (NSI) data, the number of children and young people under the age of 18, committing crimes during the year 2016, is 5362, of which 210 in Blagoevgrad district.

The lack of effective support for children and youth with behavioral problems is a problem that the strategy for the development of social services of Blagoevgrad district considers a weakness, a need for development of services and professional capacity for work with children with behavioral problems and in conflict with the law. Mainly, the Local Commission for Combating Juvenile Delinquency is committed to these children by applying educational measures that carry the characteristics of a criminal procedure, i.e. their educational effect is the imposition of a sanction or restriction.

Entrepreneurship, and especially the social entrepreneurship, can play an important role in reducing or solving the problems of the children at risk and their families. The introduction of special programs and initiatives for encouraging the employment of the parents of those children can lead to poverty reduction and better social inclusion. 

Also, teaching children about entrepreneurship, as InnoSchool initiative does, can provide them with future skills that can help them secure a job that can break the cycle and build families that don’t have to face poverty or other risks.