Promoting care leaver’s participation: a methodological reflection through the CA Approach

Since the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was adopted in 1989, scholars have extensively explored the concept of child participation at the theoretical level, leading to the implementation of various participatory practices. Today, children and youth are actively involved in research, assessments, monitoring, and consultations (e.g., Ritterbusch et al., 2020; Thomas, Percy-Smith, Johnson, Larkins, & Crook, 2016). However, despite these developments, child participation has not yet become a widespread practice within the broader development community. As Theis (2010) observed, the idea of participation has not provided a strong enough theoretical foundation to drive a clear agenda for involving children. Addressing this gap, Clark, Biggeri, and Apsan Frediani (2019) have argued that the Capability Approach offers a useful framework for understanding and practicing child and youth participation, essentially filling the void left by the absence of a dedicated theoretical framework. Although Sen does not directly tackle the foundations of participation, he emphasizes “The people need to be seen, in this perspective, as being actively involved - given the opportunity - in shaping their own destiny, and not just passive recipients of the fruits of cunning development programs” (Sen, 1999, p. 53). Viewed through this lens, child participation involves recognizing children as individuals who possess a critical understanding of their current circumstances, the ability to analyze their world, and the capacity to take action (Glynn N. & Mayock P., 2019; Pandolfi, 2015; Stein, 2012; Bastianoni & Zullo, 2012). Within this framework, the contribution examines youth participation in a specific setting - the child protection system - with a focus on care leavers. These are individuals (typically over 18) who have spent part or all of their childhood in alternative care and are in the process of leaving or are about to leave that system (UNICEF). For young people coming from alternative care, transitioning to an independent life can evoke complex emotions such as a sense of abandonment, loss of security, fear of failure, anger, and even regression (Pandolfi, 2019). Therefore, this contribution explores participatory methodologies and tools that can be used in these settings to support the development of the necessary Capabilities to promote participation in leaving care. This contribution will present methodological reflections drawn from a European project involving care leavers from two Municipalities in central Italy. At the core of the discussion lies the consultation process adopted to explore the meanings that care leavers attribute to participation, anchoring the analysis in their lived experiences and the Capabilities that sustain and inform their agency. The consultation process was designed to be both inclusive and dialogical, ensuring that each participant could engage in a way that resonated with their expressive preferences. To achieve this, the research employed play-based and artistic methodologies (Butler-Kisber, 2010; Clark & Moss, 2001; Demetrio, 1999), with a particular focus on the collage inquiry approach. This method, rooted in arts-based research, facilitated a multimodal engagement with the concept of participation, allowing participants to reflect on their experiences through visual composition, symbolic representation, and narrative construction. By engaging in the creative process of collage-making, care leavers could articulate aspects of their experiences that might have been challenging to express through conventional verbal methods. The consultation process was designed to be both inclusive and dialogical, ensuring that each participant could engage in a way that resonated with their expressive preferences. Anchored in the Capability Approach (Sen, 1999; Nussbaum, 2011), the methodology aimed to move beyond a merely procedural understanding of participation, instead framing it as a Capability - something that care leavers should have the real freedom to develop and exercise according to their values and aspirations. To operationalize this perspective, the research employed play-based and artistic methodologies (Butler-Kisber, 2010; Clark & Moss, 2001; Demetrio, 1999), with a particular focus on the collage inquiry approach. This method, rooted in arts-based research, was chosen to create a space where participants could not only express their experiences but also expand meaning-making, self-representation, and critical reflection skill. The collage-making process, by allowing for multimodal engagement through visual composition, symbolic representation, and narrative construction, provided participants with a flexible and agentic mode of expression. The consultation process was audio-recorded and subsequently transcribed, following established qualitative research protocols (Davidson, 2009). The collected data underwent thematic analysis (Joffe, 2012), which enabled the identification of recurring patterns and emergent themes in the participants’ narratives. This analytical approach allowed for an in-depth exploration of how care leavers conceptualize participation, highlighting both structural constraints and enabling factors within their trajectories. Emerging themes on the meanings of participation within the CA, as experienced by the involved care leavers include:- conceiving participation in decision-making as something that can be done alone/with somebody/on behalf of someone; as something that concerns the self/that can also involve others;- participation in decision-making processes has to do with choosing a path and leaving something behind;- participation in decision-making processes can be difficult when care leavers cannot decide for themselves because of a court order;- participation in decision-making processes can be related to the concept of freedom and agency understood as a person’s interactive role in the society;- participation in decision-making processes implies willpower and the choice of courage and, this happens at a young age for care leavers. As for what concerns the most relevant capabilities - amongst the ten suggested by Martha Nussbaum - for being able to participate we can find: 1) Life-body health; 2) Control over one’s environment; 3) Affiliation; 4) Practical reason. This list has been used as the starting point to create operational advice and recommendations addressed to the professionals of the protection system since the sharing of the meanings that emerged are crucial for the creation of an integrated local model based on the real possibilities to participate in decision-making processes concerning one’s own life project. To this end a policy toolkit was developed, based on the lived experience of the actors involved in the protection system, starting with the care leavers.