Social engineering as a means of preventing repeated orphanhood: the case of the Volgograd region

Today in society there still exists a problem of social orphanhood. To reduce the number of social orphans, a special form of family placement of children is actively developing in the country- the foster family. This concept includes all forms of family placement of orphans and children left without parental care. This article focuses on the repeated return of adopted children to specialized orphanages, which negatively affects children and causes irreparable damage to their physical and mental state. The situation in the Volgograd region regarding the highlighted problem is analyzed and the main reasons that induce foster parents to return foster children back to full state support are outlined. One of the main problems is the unsuccessful adaptation of the child to the foster family. Foster parents and children cannot find a common language, which in the future creates many new problems that accumulate and become the cause of secondary orphanhood. To improve the current situation, specialists use such technology as social design, the purpose of which is to make a positive change in society. A regional project was developed using social design technology to support foster families and foster children. The project involves the creation of a child-parent club based on a social center for the protection of the population. The essence of the project is to prevent secondary orphanhood by harmonizing parent-child relationships. In this child-parent club, it is planned to carry out various activities that will contribute to improving parenting competencies and harmonizing parent-child relations, which will reduce the risk of secondary orphanhood.