Individual assistance plan: challenges to the construction of a life project while serving socio-educational measures

Abstract

This article seeks to analyze the use of Plano Individual de Atendimento (Individual Assistance Plans) for the construction of the life projects of adolescents serving Medida Socioeducativa (Socio-Educational Measures) in an incarceration facility. Interviews were conducted with ten adolescents between the ages of 15 and 17, who were carrying out an Medida Socioeducativa of male incarceration, and document analysis was performed on their plans. The data were analyzed using thematic content analysis, from the categories “Elaboration of the Individual Assistance Plans”, “What the PIA addressed” and “Objective of the Individual Assistance Plans” in the light of Vygotsky’s cultural-historical psychology. The interviews and plans analyzed did not present sufficient information to identify the construction of the life project. The use of Individual Assistance Plans in socio-educational measures, allowing it to accomplish its planning and socio-educational function, remains challenging.