Youth Transitions from Care: Towards Improved Care-Leaving Outcomes

Dear Colleagues,

The poor outcomes associated with care-leaving are a global phenomenon. There is a substantial body of literature that documents these outcomes, their contributing factors and impact on care-leavers in the short and long term. Poor outcomes include homelessness, poor health and mental health, which are compounded by unequal access to health care, substance misuse and limited educational attainment, which in turn limits meaningful employment opportunities. Families remain fragmented and the reintegration of care-leavers back into their family of origin is difficult, often impossible, adding to their vulnerability. The children of care-experienced parents are often placed in the care system themselves. There is also a wealth of research about the difficulties experienced by care leavers as they transition out of care. Transitions are frequently compressed, unsupported, characterized by inadequate planning and limited care-leaver involvement in planning processes. Recent years have seen some changes in how the transition from care is managed in terms of mandated support for care-leavers, but systems are cumbersome, flawed and difficult for care-leavers to navigate.

There exists a space in the literature for this group of young people for work that presents positive outcomes and what enables them. We already know the challenges, outcomes and what is not working. Now is the time for us to be motivated by research that documents positive outcomes and tells us what is working for young people as they transition out of care. Solution-Focused Therapy holds that we look for what is working and do more of that. But we first need information, from successful care-leavers, on what worked for them and what enabled or facilitated their success. ‘Success’ is a relative term, so, for the purpose of this Special Issue, van Breda et al.’s (2012) notion of ‘successing’ is adopted, to refer to an on-going process in which young people journey towards success. Success, therefore, is not seen as a state of having achieved specific markers of success, but, rather, a life-long process of striving towards success.

We therefore cordially invite you to submit your papers on successful care-leavers and what worked for them as they transitioned out of care and into their successful lives beyond care. We encourage submission of papers that focus on the perspectives of care-leavers as well as practitioners on what promotes positive outcomes and successful transitions out of care. We have a special focus on the following areas: continuing education, housing, creating their own family and family reunification. However, all articles that present work on positive care-leaving outcomes, successful transitions from care and the enablers thereof will be considered.

In this Special Issue, original research articles, reviews and short communications are welcome.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Sue Bond
Dr. Joyce Hlungwani
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Youth is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• successful transitions
• care-leavers
• care-leaving
• positive outcomes
• continuing education
• housing
• creating family
• family reunification
• enablers of success