Care Leaver 2.0 - Nachhaltige Übergänge entwickeln und sichern

Abstract

Das Forschungs- und Transferprojekt "Care Leaver 2.0 - Nachhaltige Übergänge entwickeln und sichern" zielte darauf ab, innovative Ansätze zur Unterstützung von Care Leavern beim Übergang in ein möglichst selbstständiges Leben zu entwickeln und zu erproben sowie eine kommunal verbindliche Infrastruktur in Bochum aufzubauen. Im Mittelpunkt standen zwei miteinander verbundene Ansätze: die Entwicklung eines Mentoring-Modells, das die Erfahrungs- und Unterstützungsressourcen älterer Care Leaver für jüngere Care Leaver nutzbar macht, sowie der Aufbau eines kommunalen Netzwerks relevanter Institutionen und Akteure. Ausgangspunkt waren Forschungsergebnisse zur Bedeutung sozialer Beziehungen für gelingende Übergänge sowie die Reform und Erweiterung der Leistungen für Care Leaver im SGB VIII im Jahr 2021. Zur Entwicklung und Evaluation der Ansätze wurden qualitative Erhebungen, insbesondere Interviews und teilnehmende Beobachtungen, sowie Workshops und Netzwerktreffen mit Fach- und Leitungskräften durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen ein grundsätzliches Interesse und eine Bereitschaft sowohl erfahrener als auch jüngerer Care Leaver zu sozialem Austausch und peer-to-peer Unterstützung. Entgegen der ursprünglichen Annahme erwies sich jedoch ein formalisiertes Mentoring mit verbindlichem Matching als weniger geeignet. Erfolgversprechender waren offene, niedrigschwellige und inhaltlich flexible Formate, in denen Kontakte auf freiwilliger Basis und ausgehend von gemeinsamen Interessen und biografischen Erfahrungen entstehen konnten. In diesen Settings konnten informelle, erfahrungsbasierte Mentoring-Prozesse beobachtet werden. Gleichzeitig wurde deutlich, dass solche Beziehungen nicht voraussetzungslos entstehen: Es bedarf geeigneter Orte, Anlässe und verlässlicher professioneller Bezugspersonen, die den Zugang zu entsprechenden Angeboten ermöglichen und fördern. Für die Praxis lassen sich daraus zentrale Gestaltungsprinzipien ableiten. Peer-basierte Angebote sollten freiwillig, niedrigschwellig und flexibel gestaltet sein und die Heterogenität der Gruppe der Care Leaver berücksichtigen. Zugleich sollte die Förderung sozialer Netzwerke über Care-Leaver-spezifische Angebote hinaus, etwa durch Sport, Jugendkultur und andere gesellschaftliche Teilhabemöglichkeiten, einen wichtigen Stellenwert einnehmen. Dadurch kann einer Reduzierung junger Menschen auf ihre Care-Erfahrung und damit verbundenen Formen des "Othering" entgegengewirkt werden. Im zweiten Projektbereich wurde ein kommunales Kompetenz-Hub initiiert, in dem für Care Leaver relevante Institutionen und Akteure vernetzt und für deren spezifische Bedarfe sensibilisiert wurden. Als konkrete Entwicklungsschritte wurden unter anderem feste Ansprechpersonen, ein digitales Hilferegister und strukturierte Zuständigkeitsübergänge im Sinne des § 36b SGB VIII angestoßen. Die Projektergebnisse zeigen, dass eine solche koordinierte Netzwerkstruktur wichtige Impulse für eine verbesserte kommunale Übergangsinfrastruktur geben kann. Für eine langfristig verbindliche und nachhaltige Kooperation sind jedoch eine klare institutionelle Verankerung, verbindliche Beteiligungsstrukturen und eine übergeordnete Netzwerksteuerung erforderlich. Project Objectives and Background: The research and knowledge-transfer project "Care Leaver 2.0 - Developing and Securing Sustainable Transitions" pursued two interrelated objectives. First, it sought to develop and test a scientifically informed and practically applicable approach to strengthening transition support for care leavers. Second, it aimed to establish and pilot a sustainable, municipally embedded infrastructure to support care leavers during their transition to independent living in Bochum. The project was grounded in research highlighting the importance of the social context of transitions, and particularly the role of stable and supportive social relationships. For young people leaving care, the transition to independent living frequently involves the loss or weakening of established institutional relationships while simultaneously requiring the development of new forms of social support. Against this background, the project explored the potential of peer-based support and experiential expertise as a complement to professionally delivered transition services. A central component of the original project concept was therefore to facilitate sustained contact between older, more experienced care leavers and younger care leavers who were approaching or undergoing the transition out of care. Experienced care leavers were intended to contribute their experiential knowledge and, where appropriate, act as role models. This approach was conceived as complementary to the professional transition support provided within the framework of the child and youth welfare system. The project also responded to the reform and expansion of support for care leavers under Book VIII of the German Social Code (SGB VIII) in 2021. The reform strengthened the legal framework for transition support, including provisions relating to aftercare and the promotion of self-organised structures. Building on these developments, the project pursued two practical strands: the development and testing of a mentoring approach and the establishment of a municipal network of relevant stakeholders and institutions. Findings on Peer Support and Mentoring: One of the central findings of the project is that there is considerable potential for peer-to-peer exchange between experienced and younger care leavers. However, the empirical findings indicate that such relationships are more likely to develop through informal, self-selected contacts than through a formally structured mentoring model based on predefined matching procedures. The project initially envisaged a relatively structured mentoring model in which experienced care leavers would be systematically matched with younger care leavers. The empirical findings, however, suggested that this approach does not adequately reflect the social realities and preferences of the young people involved. Instead, meaningful relationships were more likely to emerge when opportunities for contact were provided without imposing formal expectations regarding the duration, frequency or role structure of the relationship. Interviews and participant observations conducted during the project indicate that both experienced and younger care leavers demonstrate an interest in social exchange and in discussing issues related to transition and independent living. At the same time, participation and relationship-building depend strongly on the extent to which such opportunities are integrated into the participants’ everyday lives. The findings therefore suggest that peer support should not primarily be conceptualised as a formalised, long-term commitment. Rather, it should be understood as a flexible form of social support that can emerge from shared experiences and situational encounters. Formal requirements concerning regular participation, fixed meeting schedules or the sustained assumption of a mentoring role may constitute barriers to participation. Development of Low-Threshold Formats: In response to these findings, the project modified its original approach and increasingly focused on open, low-threshold and flexible formats. This adaptation proved particularly effective in relation to the project’s objective of facilitating peer-based exchange. Open meeting spaces and joint leisure activities created opportunities for care leavers to establish contact without requiring them to commit to a predefined mentoring relationship. Participant observation provided evidence that informal mentoring processes could emerge within these settings. Such processes developed organically through conversations, shared activities and the recognition of common biographical experiences. This finding is significant in two respects. First, it demonstrates that care leavers are willing to engage in social exchange with other care leavers when appropriate and accessible opportunities are available. Second, it highlights the potential of informal encounters to generate forms of experiential mentoring without requiring formal mentor–mentee relationships. At the same time, the findings make clear that such processes do not necessarily arise spontaneously. They require appropriate spaces, occasions and organisational structures. A key role of support systems is therefore not necessarily to prescribe relationships, but to create the conditions under which meaningful relationships can develop. Implications for Practice and Dissemination: The findings provide several principles that can inform the further development and dissemination of peer-oriented transition support. A first prerequisite is the existence of trust-based and reliable relationships with professionals and coordinating staff. These relationships provide an important basis for communicating information about available activities, encouraging participation and establishing confidence in the respective formats. Professionals therefore continue to play an important role even where the actual support process is peer-based. Second, activities should be designed as voluntary, low-threshold and flexible opportunities for participation. Open meeting spaces, informal gatherings and joint leisure activities can provide particularly suitable contexts for initiating social relationships. Rather than defining the nature and duration of these relationships in advance, support structures should allow participants to determine the extent and form of their involvement. Third, programme design needs to recognise the heterogeneity of care leavers. Shared experiences of having been in care do not constitute a sufficient basis for assuming that care leavers form a homogeneous group. Their individual biographies, interests, needs and social circumstances differ considerably. Consequently, peer-based initiatives should avoid reducing participants to their care experience. This also has implications for broader social integration. Supporting care leavers in establishing social relationships outside care-leaver-specific settings should be considered an important element of transition support. Sports clubs, youth centres, cultural activities and other community-based contexts can provide opportunities for developing broader social networks. Such approaches can contribute to avoiding processes of "othering", in which care leavers are constructed primarily as a distinct or deficient social group. Establishing a Municipal Competence Hub: The project’s second major objective concerned the development of a binding network of institutions and stakeholders relevant to care leavers during transition. The underlying assumption was that sustainable transition support cannot be provided by individual services in isolation. Instead, it requires coordinated cooperation across the different institutional domains that young people encounter during the transition to adulthood. Relevant stakeholders were identified through group interviews with professionals and managers. Workshops and network meetings were subsequently used to raise awareness of the specific needs and challenges faced by care leavers and to establish forms of cooperation between the participating institutions. These activities resulted in the development of a municipal competence hub bringing together relevant local stakeholders. Among the concrete outcomes were the initiation of measures such as the designation of permanent contact persons for care leavers, the development of a digital register of support services, and the establishment of more structured transitions between areas of responsibility in accordance with Section 36b SGB VIII. The findings demonstrate that a research and knowledge-transfer project of this kind can provide important initial impulses for establishing an integrated municipal support structure. Bringing together relevant stakeholders, creating opportunities for professional exchange and increasing awareness of care-leaver-specific needs can contribute significantly to improving the coordination of existing services. However, the project also identified clear conditions for the long-term sustainability of such a network. Temporary project-based cooperation alone is insufficient to establish a durable and binding support infrastructure. Sustainable cooperation requires clear institutional embedding, formally defined participation structures and overarching network coordination. Conclusions: Overall, the project findings indicate that sustainable transition support for care leavers benefits from combining professional support, peer-based experiential knowledge and coordinated municipal structures. With regard to peer support, the results suggest that flexible and low-threshold formats are more conducive to relationship-building than highly formalised mentoring arrangements. Rather than attempting to engineer stable mentor–mentee relationships through predefined matching procedures, support systems should create accessible opportunities in which social relationships and informal mentoring processes can develop organically. At the institutional level, the project demonstrates the importance of establishing structures that enable cooperation across organisational boundaries. The municipal competence hub represents an important step towards a more coordinated transition infrastructure. For this approach to become sustainable, however, the network needs to be institutionally anchored and supported by binding participation arrangements and effective overarching coordination. The central implication of the project is therefore that sustainable transitions should not be understood solely as an individual responsibility of care leavers or as a matter of improving individual support services. Rather, they require supportive social environments and coordinated institutional infrastructures that enable young people to develop and sustain the relationships, resources and forms of participation necessary for independent living.