DEVELOPMENT OF SUPPORT SYSTEMS FOR DECREASING SOCIAL EXCLUSION

Research-based preventive support systems for decreasing the social exclusion risk for children and young people from age 7 to 25, which ensures successful inclusion of those learners who have a high risk of dropping out from general comprehensive school, or not receiving the certificate for the acquisition of basic education or certificate of general secondary education and the acquisition of basic knowledge and key skills in due time, has been developed for the first time in Latvia within the framework of the project "Development and implementation of the support programs for establishing the support system for young people under the exclusion risk". The social exclusion risk in the context of the project means both the risks created by poverty and various other risks, which arise due to problems of behaviour regulation, insufficient interaction skills, and learning difficulties. The support system was developed on the basis of research results (Nimante, Daniela, Samusevica, Molnika, 2012; Rageevska, Razeva, Martinsone, Tabele, Vucenlazdans, Vazne, 2012), and has been tested in 15 local municipalities and 25 educational institutions in Latvia. It has been developed to work in two directions: 1) a program for decreasing social exclusion implemented in educational institutions ensuring versatile support to all children and young people of the educational institutions involved in the project to prevent or decrease the influence of social exclusion risks. The program consists of 6 mutually related parts *Support of positive behaviour; *Social and emotional upbringing; *Peer learning for promoting reading literacy; *Career support activities; *Mentoring for alternative life experience "Lakstigala" (Nightingale), as well as parts for parents *Improvement of parent competence in supporting children's education, and cooperation with the educational institution, local municipality, and state. The program in the educational institutions minimizes factors that facilitate social exclusion risks, including learning difficulties, problems of behaviour regulation, social emotional problems, and lack of family support that result in decreasing the number of learners who do not attend school for a long period of time or drop out; 2) inter-institutional cooperation where working out and testing cooperation models for ensuring support outside school is provided for both for learners and their families, helping them reduce risks caused by socio-economics, organizing support activities for learners inside and outside school, as well as giving support to schools in implementing the program for decreasing social exclusion and working together to introduce systemic support on different levels.