Care Leaver

Care leavers (also Careleaver ) are young adults who spend part of their life in inpatient child and youth welfare - e.g. B. in assisted living groups / children's homes or foster families - and are at the transition to an independent life.

Origin of the term

The term comes from English and means "someone who leaves the care status" (literally: care-leaving). The term has become "[...] in international discourse" and is usually used without any age information, ie all age groups are included under the term. It is particularly used in the UK and Australia .

societies

In the UK there is a non-profit organization called The Care Leavers 'Association and in Australia there is the Care Leavers' Australia Network . - both since 2000. In Germany the group is represented by the association Careleaver eV .

In the UK, around one percent of children will be in an institution at some point in their life that they will leave as care leavers. It is estimated that 350,000 adults have had full or partial accommodation with it.

There are different definitions of who is a care leaver in Australia. The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 defines a care leaver as a person over the age of 15 who has been under the care of a local authority for at least 13 weeks. It is estimated that around 500,000 people were care leavers in Australia in the 20th century.

Germany

In Germany some 150,000 minors and adolescents living in residential care in assisted living or in foster care . With SGB VIII , the legislature created a series of regulations that are no longer considered sufficient. When they reach the age of majority, minors are usually dismissed without an appropriate transitional arrangement, which puts them at a fundamental disadvantage compared to life in a “normal” average family. Only § 41 SGB-VIII offers help for young adults. A reform of SGB VIII would also have an impact on this group. The Care Leaver eV association has therefore drawn up a corresponding statement.

Switzerland

In Switzerland , in summer 2020, networks in various Swiss cities called for better follow-up care for young people who grow up in homes or in foster families. In the transition period, when they suddenly have to look after themselves after their 18th birthday, many of them feel overwhelmed. It is not uncommon for them to end up in poverty, which should be prevented.

Challenges for care leavers

Care leavers are faced with much different conditions for entering professional or university life than age mates of the same age from families of origin, as they have different experience as well as different financial requirements. The transition to working life in particular can be problematic, which is why, for example, some (especially British) universities have special offers for care leavers.

research

The situation of the care leaver is the subject of research. Lerch and Stein examined the situation of Care Leavers in 13 countries. At the University of Hildesheim there is a research project in cooperation with the IGFH called "Higher Education without Family Support", which deals with the transition between school and study for care leavers .

literature

M. Stein, K. Carey: Leaving Care. Blackwell, Oxford 1986, ISBN 0-631-14875-2 .
V. Lerch, M. Stein (Ed.): Aging Out of Care: From care to adulthood in European and Central Asian societies. SOS Children's Villages International, Innsbruck 2010.
Benjamin Strahl, Severine Thomas: Care Leavers. In: Our youth. 1, 2013, pp. 2-11.

Web links

Website of Careleaver in the UK (English)
Website from Careleaver Germany
Website of the Careleaver in Australia (English)

Individual evidence

↑ Stefan Köngeter, Wolfgang Schröer, Maren Zeller: Transitioning out of Care: Educational successes and life situations of "Careleavers". In: Discourse Childhood and Youth Research. Issue 3-2012, pp. 257-259.

↑ ^a ^b Hannah König: Students without parents: Imagine it is university and you are all alone. In: Spiegel Online. May 8, 2013.

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d J. Goddard et al: Access to Child Care Records: A Comparative Analysis of UK and Australian Policy and Practice. ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 68 kB) @1@ 2