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This interim report focuses on hearing the lived experiences of children and young people in alternative care arrangements and lifts up the voices of those who have participated in private hearings as part of this Special Inquiry to date.
Key themes explored in the report include:
- Safety and quality of care
- Stability and communication
- Access to supports and services
- Connection to family, friends, community and culture.
How do young people transitioning from care plan their future lives? Planning is usually thought of as requiring clear goals and ‘future orientation’, but how might planning be regarded by young people whose wishes, hopes and plans have been repeatedly dashed? In this book Peter Appleton builds on research interviews with care-experienced young adults, and on cross-disciplinary theories of planning and of emotions, to develop a creative and non-dogmatic three-aspects model of planning for young people leaving care.
A valuable resource for practitioners, researchers and educators, this book…
Research shows that youth who leave foster care to live independently are often at risk of homelessness, less education, unemployment/poverty, and mental health issues. There are a number of reasons for this increased risk. A variety of aftercare services for youth leaving foster care are designed to help address these risks.
The purpose of this study was to examine trends in participation and understand the experiences of youth transitioning from foster care who were involved in the Iowa Aftercare Services Program. The authors examine trends in participation, services received,…
This study investigated social orphans through narratives of young people with experiences of growing up in institutional care in Latvia. The study uses the life histories of participants to explore the phenomenon of social orphans. To date, narratives about the lived experiences of social orphans in Latvia have been told in the third person, as most studies have used methodologies that kept participants passive rather than active.
The research process in this study recorded 19 care leavers’ life experiences in detail and covered three main life phases: 1) Prior to living in care; 2)…
Young adults with histories of out-of-home care (OOHC) have poor early adult outcomes. Transitioning to adulthood takes preparation, coupled with support and resources. Few studies have examined these young adults’ perceptions of what helped them prepare for adulthood and how prepared they perceived they were to make the developmental transition to adulthood. This convergent mixed methods study builds knowledge surrounding preparedness among a sample of young adults with histories in OOHC (N = 204).
The study progressed in three phases. First, quantitative measures of preparedness…
The purpose of this macro-level study is to examine the effects of social welfare benefits and services on the demand for child removals. The study is based on the panel data of Finnish municipalities (N = 293) and their social welfare indicators for the period 2010–2021. Linear regression analysis was conducted to analyze the associations between the dependent variable (child removals) and the main predictors (child welfare notifications, family support services, social assistance).
The community-level social risk factors were controlled for. It was found that child welfare…
Leaving a familiar environment can be daunting. Although previous studies investigated the experiences of youths who left care centres, few considered those who left during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this exploratory qualitative research study, the authors purposively recruited 12 African youths aged between 18 and 23, with at least two years’ experience of life in the care centres of Ekurhuleni Metro Municipality to investigate their experiences when they left such centres during the pandemic.
The data were collected through individual semistructured interviews, analysed according to…
Transition-age youth with foster care involvement (TAY) face significant risks for food insecurity and other hardships in early adulthood. Using representative survey data of youth transitioning out of foster care in California, the authors examine the prevalence and predictors of food insecurity. They find that about 30% of study participants were food insecure at ages 19, 21, and 23.
They also identify multiple risk and protective factors associated with being food insecure, such as TAY’s sexual identity and receipt of public benefits. The results of their study offer life-stage-specific…
The enactment of the National Standard of Care for Child Welfare Institutions in 2011 signifies Indonesia's commitment to deinstitutionalization by guiding the transformation of the country’s Child Welfare Institutions, from facility-based childcare homes or orphanages, to centers of community-based children and family services. Yet, evidence of this transformation of Child Welfare Institutions is scarce. This study aimed to investigate the state of transformation of the child welfare service providers for neglected children in the City of Bandung as a parameter to understand the progress of…
Trauma-informed care (TIC) is a relatively new topic in the Estonian child protection system, but it has become the particular focus of substitute care. The Estonian child protection system focuses on protecting children from maltreatment, and neglects the adult carers’ right to adequate information about the child’s trauma experience. This makes trauma-informed care vague. This article is based on focus groups conducted for a wider study that aims to develop the basis for a TIC training course for foster parents and staff members working as direct caregivers in residential substitute care.…