The voice of boys and girls, users of out-of-home child protection services must be heard and their participation promoted (Premoli, 2012), as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN, 1989) requires. It is, on the one... [ view full abstract ]
The voice of boys and girls, users of out-of-home child protection services must be heard and their participation promoted (Premoli, 2012), as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN, 1989) requires. It is, on the one hand, to promote citizenship and give value to those young people who are experiencing greater difficulties and, second, to receive from them, the top experts of residential and foster care, improvement recommendations. If all this happens in a collective dimension, and not just through individual interviews, shows a huge surplus at all levels.
The Italian Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the National Centre for Documentation and Analysis on Childhood and Adolescence implemented a national survey on children living in out-of-home care.
The survey included two research lines: a quantitative sample survey, and a qualitative, focused on the lived experience from the point of view of children. Specifically, the interest of qualitative research is aimed at understanding which representations children and young people have of their lives outside the birth family and their history of alternative care. From the outcomes obtained we can find directions and recommendations for the system of residential and foster care.
The qualitative inquiry involved the creation of focus groups for each of the following groups, with adequate representation of foreign people and balanced female/male rate:
• Children in residential care (aged 11 to 17);
• Children welcomed in foster care (aged 11 to 17);
• Young people (aged 18 to 21) in residential care transition to adulthood.
The focus groups were equally hosted in Milan, Rome, Firenze, Bari.
The focus groups were managed, according to the methodology of “collective listening”, by two professionals acting as a facilitator and a researcher. The facilitator promoted reflexivity, dialogue and narratives trough creative and recreational activities, while the researcher was writing a ethnographic diary on what happened. The group of children in RC and the group of children in FC in each city met.
The methodology of '' collective listening " (Belotti et al., 2012) is based on a simple idea: to bring together boys and girls in out-of-home care allows them to express their vision of the experience outside their birth family, to recognize themselves in the experiences of others (feeling less different and less alone), to earn a collective point of view, which can be turned into a public initiative. Young people, then, shall speak and communicate their thoughts to educators, social workers, psychologists, administrators, politicians, officials, policy makers, offering ideas to improve child welfare services.
A code of ethics, known by the participants, ensured their free participation and privacy.
The most important topics emerged:
- Differences, similarities and prejudices between FC children and RC children and "Community"
- The importance of stability and reliability of the care giver (parent or social pedagogue)
- The rules and the rights in the children’s home
- My first day in out-of-home care
- The child involvement in the alternative care
- The experience of being unaccompanied foreign minors
Participation of children and families in child welfare interventions , Other topics
