Now what? The experience of youth leaving care in four European countries

Roxana Ungureanu Roxana Ungureanu,Mihaela Tomita Mihaela Tomita

doi:10.47577/tssj.v9i1.1104

Roxana Ungureanu Roxana Ungureanu, Mihaela Tomita Mihaela Tomita

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.47577/tssj.v9i1.1104

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Abstract

This paper draws on evidence from an Erasmus+ funded project, Now What?: Preparing and Empowering Youth Leaving Care, which aimed to find out the development of an integrated approach that will successfully achieve the provision of guidance on effective education, work and living in the community and support and help when the youth face crises that are an inevitable part of their transition to adulthood and independence. The research was carried out over two years by a consortium of four countries: Romania, Greece, Albania and Portugal. The principal method used was a biographical narrative interviews with a sample of 390 young people aged 15–20. Positive results came from a range of different interventions, e.g. mentoring projects and structured individualized support. We conclude that most focused interventions seem to improve foster children's poor academic achievements, but mentoring projects have so far the best empirical support from evaluations with rigorous designs. Also there's a definite need for more intervention research.

Highlights

The process of autonomization of the young people leaving care institutions presents itself to the majority of young people with a lot of difficulties, mainly due to the lack of institutional or family support
Autonomy of life is a process that leads young people to achieve an independent life through the establishment by themselves of norms of conduct that arise from the internalization of rules and values of the community where they live that may have been indicated by the various normative systems of independence and social issues
The previous disruptions and institutional trajectories have provoked some difficulties in the transition process, especially when young people leave the care institutions that hosted them, which is very different from the young people who come from stable families and who enjoy a personalized accompaniment throughout their development

Summary

Introduction

The process of autonomization of the young people leaving care institutions presents itself to the majority of young people with a lot of difficulties, mainly due to the lack of institutional or family support. The development of the autonomy of the life of the institutionalized youths has a strong relation with the continuous process of connection with the formal caregivers in which the young people feel the investment of affective present figures that allows the young people to create an emotional security that enhances their capacity of adequately deal with situations of an external or internal nature allowing them to overcome the difficulties related to these situations. In this sense, it is considered very relevant that the residential reception of young people is carried out, in which young people are permanently accompanied

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