Detained teenagers have understood that a failure or a broken flight is just an opportunity to learn.

“What did I say to the detained teenagers? I told them that life never loses its meaning, they should trust that they will find it again”, tells us Petrică Bora, a former detainee, now a mentor for youth in contact with the law, within the team of Terre des hommes Foundation.

On 14 April 2022, Petrică spoke to an audience of professionals, at the international closing conference of PRECISION project:“Promote Rehabilitation, Empowerment of Children and Support for Youth Offenders”. The conference was organised by Terre des hommes Foundation and brought together over 100 specialists, mentors, trainers, decision making factors who met online and offline in order to discuss the situation of youth in detention and education centres, mentoring methods, solutions for their social reintegration and labour market inclusion.

We had the privilege to hear the opinions of outstanding professionals: Lucia Petrescu - National Authority of Penitentiaries, Mariama Diallo – coordinator in the European Child Friendly Justice network, Annemieke Wolthuis - Restorative Justice Netherlands, Rodica Obancea - Diversity and Inclusion World Romania (project developer on Romanian labour market), professionals from Târgu Ocna and Tichilești Detention Centres, Terre des hommes Foundation trainers and mentors.

Mrs. Mariama Diallo, coordinator within the European Child Friendly Justice network which operates in 17 countries, told us that, currently, over a million children are involved in criminal proceedings in the EU countries. Deprivation of liberty is still applied at a large scale for young offenders, and 33% of European countries may sentence children even if the deed has been committed under the criminal liability age.

Mrs. Annemieke Wolthuis, mediator, trainer, researcher within Restorative Justice Netherlands, explained to us the importance of emotional healing, as the offender needs to make peace with himself, with the victim and his/her family, with the community, by means of social reintegration. Restorative justice and its practical instrument, mediation, should be applied in detention centres and even in schools, so that pupils learn at young age how to solve conflicts among themselves.

These restorative justice principles were successfully used in the Albanian model for reintegration of children in contact with the law, as we found out from Mrs. Albana Izeti, regional programme officer on juvenile justice. Albania has a very good legal framework, which allows an efficient implementation of the reintegration model.

Integration of detained youth on the labour market is a difficult and widely debated topic. Mrs. Rodica Obancea, manager of Diversity and Inclusion World Romania organisation, told us that, within Terre des hommes project, this institution has made a map of inclusive employers willing to hire 50 youth from Western Romania detention centres. These employers are open to offer a second chance to detained teenagers, the chance of employment. The teenagers are supported by employers through internships until they get trained on a job. For them, having a job when they are released from penitentiary is something useful and a rare opportunity.

Teenagers are prepared to this effect during detention period. At Buziaș Detention Centre they learn, due to Terre des hommes Foundation projects, how to speak at a job interview, what an employment contract looks like, what its benefits are. They attend digital skill training courses and receive certificates issued by the Education Ministry, sometimes they are offered employment opportunities during detention period. It would be ideal for them to keep the post even after release from detention. “This is just a beginning for them, it would be useful for the youth to get rooted there”, Mrs. Loredana Mantu from Buziaș Detention Centres explained.

Social reintegration work implies a huge effort and it is not the responsibility of penitentiary system alone. It requires the support of the entire community, all state institutions: judges, probation officers, social workers, etc. “It takes a village to raise a child”, as Mrs. Annemieke Wolthuis emphasised in her presentation.

Discussions were facilitated by Mr. Paul Bercea, International Consultant and Trainer on Child Protection and Child Safeguarding, who proposed a new perspective on mentor - trained youth relationship. Within PRECISION project, he delivered two training sessions to the Ministry of Internal Affairs personnel (gendarmes, policemen, human trafficking experts). These sessions focused on the understanding of vulnerable child and children at risk. „Sometimes we have a limited perspective on vulnerable children, but we have to try and enlarge it. Children who grow in families or environments of violence and negligence will be later on attracted into abusive relationships (personal or work relationships)”, Mr. Paul Bercea explained to the participants.

The PRECISION project, implemented by Terre des hommes Foundation, provided youth mentoring and vocational training programmes, educational centre staff training, delivered supplies to improve living conditions in penitentiaries. Here is the project impact, in figures:

• 50 staff working with youth in 4 detention centres learned about COPOSO (Contribuția Pozitivă în Societate / Positive Contribution to Society) methodology,

• 30 staff were trained in MGS methodology (movement, games and sports activities) so that they use it when working with detained youth

• 40 teenagers were offered mentoring in Craiova Detention Centre,

• 80% of youth involved in the project have increased their social reintegration skills.

• A map was made by companies willing to employ 50 youth deprived of liberty or released from detention

“Mentoring was like a breath of fresh air for the young people”, said Mr. Cicerone Busuioc, coordinator of PRECISION mentoring programme. The project involved 7 volunteer mentors and 3 paid mentors, two of them with offending deeds in the past. The latter, when mentoring detained youth, revealed their real potential and showed that life after detention has a meaning and offers opportunities.

Mrs. Daniela Cazacu, one of the 7 volunteer mentors, went to penitentiaries and worked with detained teenagers. She advised them, motivated them to hope for a better future, inspired them confidence and optimism. She told them that “a failure, a broken flight, is just an opportunity to learn. And falling down is a motivation to rise higher.”

Maybe the best success story is Bogdan Giubega, one of the teenagers who benefited from Precision project activities. He told us that he had been released 3 months before, he was a student at the Faculty of Economy and the next week he would have a job interview.

This conference dedicated to youth deprived of liberty inspired us, motivated us to come up with proposals and mobilise in order to make their social reintegration easier. We would like to thank to participating institutions: Buziaș and Târgu Ocna Education Centres, Craiova and Tichilești Detention Centres, Child Friendly Justice European Network, Restorative Justice Netherlands, Diversity and Inclusion World Romania, National Authority of Penitentiaries, Association “Lire pour en Sortir”, Validity Foundation - Mental Disability Advocacy Centre.

The PRECISION project was implemented by Terre des hommes Foundation in the period January 2020 – April 2022 and was funded by Medicor Foundation (Liechtenstein) .