This research describes experiences of juveniles placed in institutional education system with a focus on their identity and the identification process through symbolic boundaries. The purpose is to contribute to scholarship on institutional education system and to feelings of juveniles given today’s stereotypical social identification of juveniles in residential care. A research has been conducted using semi-structured interviews with five interlocutors in the city of Zadar. Results of the research showed that juveniles see their life in residential care as limited, controlled, but with more possibilities than they had with their family. They draw symbolic boundaries with regard to specific setting in which they grew up. The participants build their identity based on their environment, i.e. based on their family and friends. Due to lack of role models and ideals, in the research it was concluded that the process of their identification is happening backwards, i.e. it is based on what the participants do not want and do not accept. The research found the importance of residential care as a community full of understanding and acceptance. The interlocutors have their own vision of future and they hope to fulfil it as well as they hope that society will change their way of thinking.