The Balvan Mentoring Project is a British-Bulgarian initiative aiming to promote social inclusion of young people from Bulgarian state institutions (homes for children deprived of parental care) through an innovative programme of one-to-one mentoring, interactive group workshops and extra-curricular activities. By linking teenagers from the Khristo Smirnenski Home, Balvan, with committed student mentors from the University of Veliko Turnovo, the project will provide individual support at a critical time in their lives, as well as promoting tolerance and understanding between young people from different cultural backgrounds, breaking down some of the stigma associated with institutionalisation and the Roma ethnicity and encouraging the development of a Bulgarian volunteer culture. The project will involve teenagers from the Khristo Smirnenski Home, mentors from the University of Veliko Turnovo and co-ordinators from both the Bulgaria and the UK, and will also bring together young volunteers from the UK and Bulgaria in order to exchange information and experiences of volunteering with disadvantaged youth, foster cross-cultural understanding and create a shared sense of working actively towards a common goal within Europe.

The Balvan English Club aims to provide a fun and stimulating extra-curricular activity for children and teenagers at the Khristo Smirnenski Home in Balvan, to help them achieve their full potential and, in the long-term, broaden their future prospects. Through an imaginative programme of interactive and age-appropriate activities such as games, craft and music, the English Club offers a rare opportunity for engagement and distraction, whilst encouraging the children and teenagers to take pride in their work and abilities both at school and outside. The Club also provides the opportunity for the children and teenagers to improve their English language skills, skills which, given the growing international prominence of the English language, will be invaluable in their adult working lives.