Former fostered children: how young adults recall their experience

Child and family welfare policy makers of Veneto Region (Italy) asked the University of Padua to research the care paths of a group of former fostered children in order to inquire how this experience of Foster Care impacted their present life, and to increase the effectiveness of the work with children out-of-home and their families. The specific goal of the research was to analyse the trajectories of life and the personal representation of young adults collecting the feelings and thoughts about their personal story; the experience of life in foster care; the end of the care process; the present life – wellbeing level. Using a quanti-qualitative approach, data about 50 people at least 20 y.o. who lived in foster care from 1998 to 2008 for at least 6 months, were collected via semi-structured face-to-face interviews and a questionnaire. The first results show interviewees have a mostly positive representation of their selves, of the relationship with their foster family and of the relationships within their social network; most of them have a job, even if not always with stable position, and are not in care anymore; often they are really critical about their care process and the child welfare, and complain about the lack of a unique and shared project.