National youth program

3.5. Youth lacking adequate family support
The group of young people who, for various reasons, lost their family support is small, but it 
requires a great responsibility of the society regarding equalizing life opportunities. Public 
services become an ‘‘institutional parent’’ to children and youth whose families are not able 
to care for them and have the responsibility to support young people until they become 
independent. According to the data from the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare for 2006, 

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in state and private homes for children without appropriate parental care there were 536 
young persons aged 14 to 21, while in foster families there were 887 young persons aged 
15 to 30. In addition, in 2006 there were 498 young persons in homes for children and youth 
with behavioural disorders, while around 2,000 of them lived in specialised upbringing 
institutions for children with developmental difficulties, and these are the ones who can 
hardly or not at all count on family support after exiting from the institutions.
Institutions do not provide young people with life skills necessary for good social 
integration. Upon completing high school, young people must leave the home, and often 
have nowhere and nobody to go to. In spite of the efforts of social care centers and the 
home itself, the accommodation, employment and integration are realized with a lot of 
difficulties. Multiyear stay in homes due to the non-existence of special homes for executing 
the measures for youth with behavioural disorders, and thereby also the insurmountable 
difficulties in implementation of a differentiated treatment in circumstances of living 
together, influence unfavourably the development of young persons who are placed in 
such homes with the aim to protect them from risky and threatening circumstances to 
which they were exposed in their families.
Within the social care system, a great progress was achieved through strengthening the 
fostering system as a higher quality form of care for children without appropriate parental 
care and support and through establishing smaller housing communities in which young 
persons are trained for independent life. In 2002 there were 22 housing communities active 
(capacity of 64 places) the founder of which was the Republic of Croatia and 4 housing 
communities within the homes of other founders (capacity of 56 places), while in 2008 
there were active 35 housing communities for young persons preparing to leave homes 
for children without appropriate parental care, with the total capacity of 163 places. 
Some of the mentioned housing communities operate in apartments owned by local self-
administration. However, as these communities do not represent a permanent housing 
solution, it is necessary to develop systems for gaining independence through more 
favourable rentals and stimulated apartment construction. The society’s responsibility for 
education of young persons without parental care according to regulation finishes with 
the acquisition of professional qualifications in high schools, and it would be desirable to 
stimulate also further education of these children in order to improve their social status. In 
accordance with the Law on Social Care (Official Gazette, 73/97, 27/01, 59/01, 82/01, 103/03, 
44/06 and 79/07), the care outside one’s own family comprises also financial support to 
students – users of care outside their own family whose permanent accommodation has 
expired. In other words, to a user of permanent accommodation, who enrols in studies as 
a regular student, social care center approves the right to a monthly financial support in 
the fourfold amount of the budgetary base rate. The right to receive financial support lasts 
until the end of regular studies in accordance with the curricula of the studies they attend. 
The user may also be granted financial support during attending the same year for the 
second time, in case of illness or for other justified reason, with the consent by the Ministry 
authorized for social care activities.
Youth without appropriate family support need help and support when founding their 
own families since they do not have appropriate experiences and models based on which 
they would build positive and lasting partner and parental relationships.

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