ALE. Attractive Living Education, not beer

Back in the day I worked as an expert for the Romanian subsidiary of the SOS Children’s Villages International, having several positions - National Youth Care Coordinator, Family Based Care Advisor, member of the National Child Protection Team and also as a manager, on the position of Family Strengthening Program Manager, member of the National Management Team. It was very challenging to coordinate and manage teams and professionals from all over the country, to work with hundred thousand euro budgets, to train, coach and mentor educators and young project managers, to asses and evaluate the continuously emerging needs of children and youth in alternative care and to create policies accordingly, to ensure the quality of care and of the educational work, while also doing fundraising, managing crises, investigating abuse allegations and implementing my very own method of education - 'ALE.' 

It proved out that this creative educational method I developed, the Attractive Living Education approach, implemented as a pilot project in a youth facility of SOS Children’s Villages Romania, had an unbelievable 100% success rate, assessed in a long-term 360 degree evaluation process. For that reason it became an educational working tool for the other youth facilities of the organization and was recognized worldwide as best practice example at the 2011 Quality in Alternative Care International Conference in Prague.   

The results of the ALE pilot-project implementation were remarkable: 92% according to the initial plan and 8% exceeding the expectations: on one hand all the youngsters at risk of school dropout went to school; they have given up most of their previous bad habits (smoking, drinking, stealing); strongly increased their independent living abilities, improved their behaviour and attitude and set up more realistic goals for their lives. On the other hand, the educators became full of energy, creative and open to challenges, united as a team and the fluctuation of personnel dropped to 0. Isn't that amazing?