This contribution presents first achievements from the European REC project CarINg (Empowering Child Care Systems and Supporting Leaving Care from Inside). The aim of the project is to create opportunities for care leavers–– by working with social services and local stakeholders–– to participate in decisions concerning their life path. Specifically, the contribution presents the results of one of the most meaningful phases of the whole CarINg Project, which foresees a participatory action-research articulated in four consultation activities with the care leavers part of the protection system of the Municipality of Florence and of the Health Society of the Area of Prato, Italy (areas in which the project is based). 

The consultation process (October-December 2021) involved 18 care leavers, aged between 17 and 21, and explored the meaning they attribute to participation in decisions concerning their life project. Literature highlights several factors that contribute to the successful construction of the leaving care process (Glynn N., Mayock P., 2019; Stein, 2012; Bastianoni, Zullo, 2012), amongst which participation in decisions concerning one’s own life project. Although, participation is a right enshrined by the UNCRC and by the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children (UN General Assembly 2010), it is difficult to put into practice, because it is often considered secondary in situations where the child’s life or health are at risk. This is frequently the case when it proves necessary to place a child in alternative care. As research demonstrates, this trend has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic (UNICEF, 2021). Nevertheless, participation is not only a right but a principle at the base of the realization of all other rights, because it is fundamental for the construction of one’s own life path.

To this end, according to UNICEF’s definition, care leavers are people (typically over 18 years of age), who spent all or part of their childhood in residential care settings and that have left this placement. For these young people, this transition can generate complicated emotional experiences, such as the sense of abandonment, the loss of the acquired sense of security, fear of not succeeding, anger and regression (Pandolfi, 2019). The literature has also highlighted the risks of social exclusion and of unsuccessful life outcomes (Driscoll, 2013; Stein & Munro, 2008).  For these reasons, exploring the meanings of participation, as experienced by the involved care leavers, becomes crucial. 

The CarINg project recognises these aspects and aims at creating real opportunities for care leavers to participate in the decisions that concern the construction of their life project. For this to happen it needs to be grounded in a strong framework which has been identified in the Capability Approach. The Capability Approach to social justice is a theoretical-practical model developed by A. Sen and M. Nussbaum (Sen, 2009; Sen & Nussbaum, 1993; Nussbaum, 2006) for the definition of basic social justice. It focuses on the concrete dimension of individuals' freedom, namely the real capacity for self-determination and the pursuit of a life plan to which individuals attribute value.From this perspective, any intervention that aims to promote social justice must have as its objective the expansion of the "Capability set" (the actual personal possibilities, of care leavers in this case) in given contexts (the protection system in this case), and, at the same time, the development of their agency, understood as the relevant ability to actively pursue valuable objectives (Sen, 1999). Furthermore, the CA tries to combine attention to external factors - constraints and conversion factors that act on individuals-, with the promotion of autonomy, considered central to the effective exercise of a full and conscious freedom to create real possibilities for the self.

The care leaver’s (n=18, aged between 17 and 21 years) experience within the child protection system was explored through a process of consultation with them. It adopted a participatory method of investigation (O’Kane, 2008; Welty & Lundy, 2013; Christensen & James, 2017), that acknowledges children’s and young people’s right to be heard and taken seriously and play-based and artistic languages (Butler-Kisber, 2008; Clark & Moss, 2001; Demetrio, 1999), to guarantee the opportunity of each participant to be able to express him/herself in the most suitable way, playing with different opportunities. The study was approved by the Ethical Board of the Milano-Bicocca University (prot. N. 647) and followed the guidelines suggested by the ethical code of the Italian Society of Pedagogy (SIPED, 2020) and by the Declaration of Helsinki (World Medical Association, 2001). Within this process the question on the meanings the care leavers give to participation in decisions concerning the construction of their life project was explored. The collage inquiry approach (Butler-Kisber, 2010) was chosen, motivated by the following reasons (Biffi & Zuccoli, 2015) which include: To create a collage, one does not need to express oneself through the use of the Italian language; - No specific graphic-pictorial skills are needed; - The decontextualization and recompositing into other shapes, through de-composition, s-composition and re-composition, are all actions capable of activating a hermeneutic circle; - The originality, transformation and constant prolificacy of the proposals, with the possibility of experimenting with those that one feels being closer to one's own experiences and choices; - The ambivalence between a strictly casual use and a rational rigour.

The data analysis process is still being conducted (Van Manen,1990; Mortari,2016), but the first emerging themes include: - conceiving participation in decision making as something that can be done alone/with somebody/on behalf of someone; as something that concerns the self/that can also involve others; - participation in decision-making processes has to do with choosing a path and leaving something behind; - participation in decision-making processes can be difficult when care leavers cannot decide for themselves because of a court order; - participation in decision-making processes can be related to the concept of freedom and agency understood as a person’s interactive role in the society; - participation in decision-making processes implies willpower and the choice of courage and, this happens at a young age for care leavers. These themes are the basis of the development of guidelines for the professionals working in the protection system. Moreover, the sharing of the meanings that emerged are crucial for the creation of an integrated local model based on the real possibilities to participate in decision-making processes concerning one’s own life project. CarINg, in fact, aims at elaborating an integrated model for the care leaving system that can become a methodological and operational reference point not only at local level, but also at national and European ones. To this end a policy toolkit will be developed, based on the lived experience of the actors involved in the protection system, starting with the care leavers.

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