“Invisible Youth” – Educational Dimensions of Problems Faced by Young People Leaving the System of Alternative Care in Bulgaria

The article is based on a large-scale study of young people leaving or left alternative care in Bulgaria. As one of the high-risk groups out of the public spotlight, they concentrate a series of problems that remain “invisible”: broken family relations, that lead to a lack of support from parents or relatives, a lack of skills for independent living, that offsets institutional reflex of the learned helplessness they manifest. Education for them is a possible way out of the status of one of the most vulnerable groups in society, but it too often falls victim to the frightening inter-institutional irresponsibility shared between the social services in which these young people live and the schools where they study.