Residential Child and Youth Care in Albania

Re-definition of residential child and of youth care has been part of the political history and reconstruction of the State of Albania since the 1990s and the return of democracy. The authorities had to deal with dynamics similar to other Communist countries in Eastern Europe that had inherited a child care system based on institutionalization. Following international guidelines and those of UN bodies such as UNICEF, most Eastern European countries have redirected their efforts towards giving support to families. However, in Albania the results have not followed similar expectations in a country where fostering is an almost unknown practice. Institutional care still appears to Albanian families – and to social workers – as an answer to poverty. The great poverty of the 1990s helped to shape the Albanian system of care for children and young people. After the fall of the regime, this small European country became the recipient of a great deal of aid from national and international cooperation and private associations. After several reforms of the social services, the National Authorities have focused attention on how to regulate such different realities within a national framework. Both quantitative and qualitative realities of children and young people placed in public and private care in Albania are examined. In 2015, the Albanian Government approved the National Inter-Sector Strategy for Decentralization and Local Government 2015-2020. These programmed reforms – from the administrative-territorial to social services – may provide opportunities to put children and young people at the centre of a real welfare-based Albania.