History

The Prelomi Institute is a non-governmental and non-profit organisation founded in 2010 upon the initiative of dr. Alenka Hebar Lavrič. Alenka Hebar Lavrič came to the field of social welfare after studying andragogy, family therapy, working in the field of education of older people and after volunteering in prison. As a result of this various experience, she started developing educational programmes for adults belonging to the socially deprivileged groups.

Financial literacy is part of functional literacy, which was the Institute’s initial research area. Observing their own practice and studying various sources, the finding of the Institute was that in Slovenia, debt advice was insufficient, dispersed, poorly known and poorly accessible, while the level of indebtedness of individuals and households was growing rapidly. Thus, the social protection programme S.O.S. Debts, which had yet to be developed, has slowly become the core social protection programme of the Prelomi Institute. The Institute views indebtedness as a complex phenomenon that needs a broad perspective. The programme of integrated assistance, advice and counselling grew out of an analysis of the needs of the indebted, the expectations and capacities of creditors, and above all the situations and stories of individuals and their families.

Since 2016, in cooperation with the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana, the Institute has been admitting a limited number of andragogy students into its practical training programme in the field of debt advice and counselling.

Since its very beginning in 2010, the Institute has been expanding the range of external experts and institutions with whom it cooperates, as indebtedness is a complex phenomenon requiring a broad perspective and in-depth individual treatment.

In 2018 Andrej Lavrič theoretically frames the activities of the Institute, his master thesis being titled The Impact of Personal and Social Factors on Individual and Family Over-indebtedness.

In 2023, the Institute became the Slovenian reference organisation for debt advice and debt counselling. It is being used as a reference organisation by the European Consumer Debt Network (ECDN) to spread and promote adult financial literacy as well as debt advice and counselling.

By 2023, the Institute helped more than 2,000 individuals and families to come out of debt, set themselves on a path of change and rebuild a decent and fulfilling life.