Abstract
Every year, about 3,000 young people in Italy exit the child protection system and must rapidly achieve independence, often without adequate preparation. This chapter discusses the developments in Italy since 2010 in this context.
Initially, a group of care leavers envisioned active involvement and advocacy as strategies to amplify their voices and secure meaningful responses from institutions. This led to the founding of the Agevolando Association in 2010, aimed at supporting young people leaving care by enhancing their autonomy, well-being, and active participation.
In 2014, Agevolando established the Care Leavers’ Network (CLN), an informal network designed to boost the involvement and citizenship of care leavers. The CLN adopted focus groups as the primary tool for advocacy, focusing on developing recommendations for professionals, institutions and the community. This chapter highlights significant outcomes of the network’s activities, showcasing how hundreds of young people contributed to creating recommendations and drawing unprecedented attention to the challenges faced by those leaving care in Italy.
The focus groups facilitated direct interaction between care leavers and decision-makers at political and technical levels. They proved effective in fostering relationships among care leavers across Italy, encouraging dialogue with policy makers, and enabling social workers to engage through lectures led by care leavers themselves