The third Annual Meeting of the National Foster Care dedicated to teamwork, quality, standards and professionalization in foster care was attended by 100 young people, children, foster parents and professionals. The meeting was organized by the National Foster Care Association, with the financial support of the leading telecom Mtel. During the conference except the training content for foster parents also took place a special meeting of young people from foster families. Thanks to the partnership with "For Our Children" Foundation there were provided professional animators who entertained the little ones while their parents shared knowledge and experience.

In his greeting to the foster parents Miroslav Dolapchiev, National Foster Care Association Chairman, focus on the contribution of foster parents for the Bulgarian society and the effect of foster care for children. ‘We must be sure that with our behavior and attitude in the society we show the face of foster care. People have trusted the foster parents, but still there are also some cases -- foster parents are perceived and threated in an unacceptable way’, Mr. Dolapchiev states and stressed that it was very valuable to indicate the real problems of the foster parents, but also to do not forget the challenges that the biological parents and all people engaged with the children care are often facing.

In her presentation to the foster parents Galya Marinova, National Foster Care Association Coordinator Smolyan, talked about the main difficulties in all foster care implementation phases – during the foster parents’ selection process, training and evaluation, adaptation, care and part of the child from the foster family. The main focus was on the lack of teamwork and effective communication, bad and administrative treatment and the lack of social security for the foster parents -- as covering of sickness leave, for example. Galya Marinova and National Foster Care Association team appeal for active coordination of all child cases and demand personal responsibility for the decisions of specialists who harm children. The representatives of the Agency for Social Assistance focused on creating a regional model in foster care and trainings for all sides involved in foster care, to achieve the needed quality of foster care.

The second conference day was dedicated to a specific topics related to the professionalization of foster families. They discussed practical guidelines for conduct in the process of communicating with the biological families of the foster children, dealing with the difficult emotions in the adoption process, working process with the adopting families, caring for children with developmental delays as well as the functions of replacement foster care as a resource to support foster parents. The sociologist Evelina Slavkova has presented data from a study on the public image of the foster parents and the basic stereotypes that society has for foster parents. Among them was highlighted the perception that foster parents are usually caring for children mainly due to financial reasons. The sociological study conducted by the National Foster Care Association in 2015 showed that nearly 40% of the Bulgarians would become foster parents only if they are paid for it. During the conference was held a quest with the foster parents that will snapshot the current view of the foster care. At the end of the second day the youths have presented their perspective on the foster care development and support they receive in foster families.