Abstract
The research project in progress examines the experiences of transitions to work and the associated
challenges for the agency of young people leaving residential care institutions in South Tyrol/Italy.
The concept of agency focusses on individual opportunities for action and ways of influencing the own
life. From a relational perspective those opportunities are produced in changing social constellations
depending on the contextual conditions. Social work services that accompany care leavers’ transitions
to an independent life after care are part of the contextual conditions, and there is an urge for innovation
in those services to better respond to the needs of care leaver in their transitioning processes. Quick
transitions into a job and the experience of related conditions as precarious employment situations
with low career prospects are more common, than the choice for higher education in order to have more
career prospects, higher income and more job security in the long run. Fostering factors for the transition into the labour market are education, financial support, and one’s social background, as well as a close relationship to professionals in the care environment and a reliable, extended private and professional support network (Zeira, Refaeli, & Benbenishty, 2019; SOS Villagi dei Bambini Italia 2017). The presented first results draw from qualitative in depht interviews with young adults who have left the child and youth welfare system and with professional social workers who accompany individual projects with care leavers. They allow insights into the unfolding transition processes and in the experiences of care leavers from the
perspective of a later point in their careers. The analysis offers a base for reflective awareness of the
prevailing shifts and ‘distributed agency’ of care leavers, that can positively influence the practice of
transition and inspire new approaches to the lifespan and the way practitioners intervene throughout
the lifespan.