JOURNAL
ISSUE 1
1998/1999
The
Neighbourhood Center: A New Strategy for Survival in Bulgaria
Elka
Todorova
ABSTRACT
Seven years after the declared transition to a market economy
and the start of reform in the social security system, social
protection problems in Bulgaria are seen as an issue for
the state regulation system. The idea that the Non Governmental
Organizations (NGOs) (2,800 in number, about 30% doing social
activities) will play a corrective role in universal social
policy has turned out to be unrealistic. In a situation
of deep economic crises, when about 40% of the population
is engaged in active state social measures, charitable activities
are seen as the only other way to do social work. Is there
a way to bring together these two extremes? Neighborhood
centers as community support systems existing beyond the
state-private dichotomy are a challenge to them both as
well as a challenge to the ideology of division of private
property and group rights.
THIRD SECTOR
IN BULGARIA
Seven years after the declared transition to market economy,
and the beginning of reform in social policy, social protection
is seen as a problem first of all of the state regulation.
The position of the Egos, the so-called third sector to play
an active role in the building of the new system, has not
been seriously discussed among professionals of the public.
Social prevention is dichotomized between social policy dictated
by the state (around 30% from the population are included
in active social measures) and the partial charitable activities
organized by the public. Even officials at the Ministry of
Social Welfare acknowledge the need to stimulate individual
initiatives and interpersonal relations to fulfill the aim
of “help for self-help.”
Civil organizations
are the core subject of social protection. NGOs, defending
rights of particular groups, may play a corrective role in
the abstract and universal social policies of the state. The
1942 statistical bulletin of the Bulgarian Kingdom listed
147 NGOs. A substantial number were cultural and literacy
organizations. By 1944, after the war, only few were preserved:
the Red Cross, the Union of the Handicapped, the Union of
the Blind and Deaf People, and cultural professional unions
(musicians, writers, scientists, etc.).
It was expected
that the elements of democracy, including the NGOs, would
receive broad acceptance after the political changes in 1989.
In practice, this did not happen for at least two reasons.
First, the political changes were not imposed by civic groups,
and second, the decentralization of the state machine was
done by central decision making resulting in a hyperconcentration
of power in the hands of a few, the new elite. A privatization
of profits and nationalization of the losses took place. It
was difficult to expect stable civic organizations with sharp
unemployment, growth in criminality, and weakness of social
funds. An attitude of awaiting help from the state was developed
- an ideology that the state is obliged to be a guarantee
of the social health.
That may explain
why NGOs are seen more as groups to pressure the state, than
co-partner, as well as catering to foreign political interests
of hiding personal enrichment. (The tax privileges for NGOs
may stimulated illegal business.) Some NGOs register themselves
as political parties (the movement of the poor, the movement
for the support of people with cardiac problems); poverty
and illnesses become social dimensions (Kabakcieva, 1996).
The number of
NGOs has raised substantially. There were 2,800 NGOs registered
in 1989. One thousand were related to social activities (NGO
Directory, 1996). Most use volunteers who are chosen on a
personal basis. In 1996 a Union of the NGOs and a Consultative
Board for the coordination of the NGOs was found. Most of
the NGOs are in a process of development or are clarifying
their priorities. Almost all face serious financial problems.
Existing NGOs
may be described as oriented toward young people, disabled,
children and families, aged homeless, or addicted in this
ranking. The activities of NGOs are mainly propaganda, teaching,
counseling and information, social and recreation activities,
practical skills training, help with housing, day center work,
and dormitory facilities. Volunteers are well-educated, young
people, aged 15-34, urban citizens, unemployed or students
(Nikolov, 1995).
The main problems
of the NGOs are lack of clear state policy for the non-governmental
sector, lack of success of the structural reform in Bulgaria,
the weakening instead of strengthening of the civil society,
and the financial deficit. Furthermore the lack of tradition
in charitable activities as a cultural norm restrain the popularity
of NGOs in Bulgaria (Minev, 1996). For the moment, the chances
for the development of the NGO sector depend mainly on outside
foreign help.
Civil organizations
usually demonstrate strong activities in periods of crisis.
Difficult conditions mobilize rather than amortize civic consciousness.
This happened in Bulgaria in the periods after the two world
wars. This tendency may be preserved.
THE REFORM
OF THE SOCIAL PROTECTION SYSTEM
Countries in Europe have developed both allocative and distributive
policies at a time when the welfare policies have become citizen
rights. Western scholars point out that there is a convergence
or view in Europe that the state is responsible for the provision
of certain goods and services, such as health care and education,
as well as obliged to guarantee the maintenance of a minimum
level of income (Lane & Ersson, 1996).
This is an alien
ideology for most of the contemporary governing bodies in
Bulgaria. The liberal thinking has no historical trends and
weak support from the population. Moves for state protection
are prefaced with declarative slogans such as “no socialist
in Bulgaria is based on the frame of social insurance,”
where restrictive politics toward expenditure and reduction
of payments to reach a balanced budget dominate. The redistribution
side of the public resource allocation, the provision of goods
and services like education, health, social care for elderly
and disabled has lacked formation. New risk groups are not
included in services.
The social insurance
system has undergone transformations which, although bearing
the minuses of fragmentary and temporary solution, show concern
with the new social problems and interest in reform of the
system. In contrast, non-cash social assistance is just starting
to transform its structure and priorities. Reformation of
the social assistance system requires of ideology change before
any practical changes are accepted. At the same time, it depends
on the successful adjustment of existing institutions with
alternatives, adequate to the new demands.
It is difficult
to define whether and when the transformation will be over.
We have to consider the weak economic bases, limited resources
in general, the deep anomie crisis unprecedented in the new
history of Bulgaria, and the impoverishment of the population.
This is called “the necessary price Bulgaria has to pay”
for the right to breathe freely by overthrowing the burden
of the antihuman state social corporatism. Bulgaria is in
Europe but the situation is more like that of Third World
democracies.
THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
CENTERS AND THEIR FUTURE
The Neighborhood Center for Social Activities, Varna, was
established to provide social work in the community and train
volunteers and professionals to approach representatives of
risk groups (such as unemployed, single parents, problem families,
handicapped, adolescents and children at risk, adults in phases
of resocialization, and so forth.)
Persons at risk
are introduced to new community methods for living and working.
Moreover, community development work will improve both the
situation of individuals and the living conditions in the
neighborhood by organizing people, equipping them with necessary
skills, and helping them to form self-managed organizations
around community interests. In addition the Center is to develop
special projects including Job-Matching, Security in the Neighborhood,
and Fight Deprivation. The intention is to reduce the number
of people dependent on benefits and to offer a better chance
for finding work and improving the quality of life in the
neighborhood.
Center staff were
super active and aggressive at the beginning of the work.
The work principles of the neighborhood center included
self-management (people taking control of managing things
themselves), approaching coherence (finding more practical
and efficient ways of working), creating jobs by social renewal
(management of the neighborhood), and problem-solving. The
neighborhood center looked for efficient and decisive
decision-making procedures. The concrete steps at the beginning
were:
1. Mutual exploitation
of facilities for the Center for Social Professional Training
(SUPS) following agreements signed by the Neighborhood Center
for Social Activities and the Regional Social Care Center,
Varna;
2. Appointment
of staff and manager of the Neighborhood Center;
3. Appointment
of lecturers and supervisors from the teaching staff at
Varna Free University according to the signed agreement
between the Faculty of Social Work at Varna Free University
and the Neighborhood Center;
4. Nomination
of volunteers from the community and from students in social
work, applied social psychology, and social management for
work in the projects and survey of the community’s
needs;
5. Nomination
of social work NGO representatives in the community for
developing mutual strategies;
6. Developing
strategies for permanent contacts with the Municipality,
Regional Labor Office, Social Assistance Office, Home Patronage,
and so forth;
7. Planning
first-year activities and selecting technologies for the
fulfillment of the projects;
8. Work in the
three main projects - Job matching, Security in the Neighborhood,
Fight Deprivation.
The program aimed
at reaching the main organizational need of the Neighborhood
Center, namely to be acknowledged as a meaningful and self
managing agent for social protection, by working independently
but in concordance with the existing public and private regional
and state institutions.
Neighborhood Centers
had to become a complementary element to the social public
structures to be embedded and integral to the community where
they are located. They enrich the practice of the social work
in Bulgaria by developing community work activities, introducing
social assistance on individual, family and community levels,
and involve the energy of the entire community to stand for
values of social justice, wholeness, and incorporating diversity.
Up to now the
center has developed only know-how strategies for training
participants. The effectiveness of NCSA as an organization
will depend on its success building a “web of mutual
obligation” that reconciles group purposes with individual
and family diversity, builds relationships that create community,
and provides opportunities for citizens to act on their own
relations. Centers must involve neighborhood residents, the
private sector, and the public sector in activities with common
interests. NCSA is trying to convince the public that gains
require a combination of social and individual goals; NCSA
should assist in reducing individual isolation, enabling social
participation and improving the living conditions in the whole
area. Without activities, however, the Center has no sense.
The main activities are:
1. To draw up
an inventory of the potential of the people (the human resources)
and the community (its socioeconomic development) including
their strong and weak points, and to develop a functional
network based on the connection of work, housing, education,
health, and environment.
2. To prepare
the housing base of the Neighborhood Center for work.
3. To engage
the participants in the three simultaneously starting projects
(Job-Matching, Security in the Neighborhood, and Fight Deprivation).
4. To start project Job-Matching:
- problem -
the high unemployment rate in the neighborhood;
- purpose -
showing the possibilities of finding work, directly or
indirectly to local unemployed;
- target group
- all unemployed, registered or not;
- procedure
- organization of job fair in close cooperation with the
Regional Labor Office; accompanying people on their way
to an application, finding employment, job orientation,
extra training, working experience, work;
- result -
employers in the job fair to help training course participation,
job information search, labor contacts, finding work;
- sustainability
- the local resident knows of the existing activities
for unemployed and the community center as the place to
get permanent up-to-date information and work contacts
for the future. The job-fair should be only one among
many existing activities for unemployed.
5. To start
project Security in the neighborhood :
- problem -
the high level of risk by signing nonprofessional work
contracts, housing contracts, etc. and high degree of
personal like insecurity in the neighborhood;
- purpose -
showing individuals their working and civil rights;
- target group
- individuals in phase of resocialization, handicapped,
pensioners;
- procedure
- organize a permanent advice, notice and information
board in close cooperation with the social workers at
Varna penitentiary and other institutions, the Regional
Union of the Handicapped, NGO MEMA, and so forth; provide
individual and group training;
- result -
legal advice information and training course participation;
- sustainability
- any local resident in need knows that in the NCSA he/she
has organizational, legal and social work adviser as well
as other group help.
6. To start
project Fight Deprivation:
- problem -
the high number of deprived individuals or risk group
representatives;
- purpose -
showing to local deprived individuals the case work and
group work strategies for empowerment;
- target group
- members of problem families, single parents, adolescents
with asocial behavior, battered women;
- procedure
- organization weekly training courses for social assistance,
sensitivity training, social skill development in close
cooperation with FSW at VFU and NGOs;
- result -
participation in individual and group training, organized
and supervised by professionals;
- sustainability
- the local resident knows that the Center has time and
resources to deal with his/her own psychological problems.
The Neighborhood
Center for Social Activities aims to be a place for community
residents to participate in social activities, to seek help
for personal and family problems, to find recreational possibilities,
to learn job skills, and to join with others to address neighborhood
problems. The activities are only starting efforts to build
a working social center. A recent idea has been to start building
a network of neighborhood centers in Bulgaria as the neighborhood
center in Varna reaches its goals.
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