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When NEET is not so neat: helping youth age out of care

By Elisabeth Faure


What do the experiences of youth leaving care in Quebec and South Africa have in common? Perhaps more than you’d think.

The Department of Applied Human Sciences recently hosted Professor Adrian D. van Breda from the University of Johannesburg, where he gave a lecture on the topic to staff, faculty members, and students, Building resilience to facilitate successful transitioning out of care towards young adulthood: lessons from South Africa. This event was made possible through the support of the Faculty of Arts and Science and the Centre for Human Relations and Community Studies.

Van Breda was invited by Professor Varda Mann-Feder, whom he met four years ago at a World Child and Youth conference in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Like Mann-Feder, van Breda’s work focuses on care leaving. He is a resilience scholar, previously researching family and organisational resilience, and now focusing on the resilience processes that help youth (particularly youth leaving care) transition from adolescence to young adulthood. He is the principle investigator of a longitudinal study on care-leaving in South Africa, and has over 30 publications on his CV.

Van Breda noted the rapid recent increase in research on care-leaving in South Africa, after the topic being almost invisible before. Mann-Feder commented that this is true also in Canada, where research on care-leaving has only recently been a focused subject of investigation.

Both South Africa and Quebec are lacking when it comes to providing resources for youth in care, when they “age out” at the age of 18. This leads many youth to fall between the cracks. “They are at risk of becoming NEET,” explained van Breda in his talk. There is nothing neat about the term NEET, which stands for Not in Employment, Education or Training. Young adults who a NEET are at further risk of getting involved in drugs and crime.

Van Breda’s research endeavours to identify the resilience processes that increase the chances of better transitions out of care and towards independent living in young adulthood. Some of his key findings are the centrality of supportive social relationships with friends, family, teachers, role models and lovers. In addition, the ability of young people to work cooperatively with others has been found to be useful and their engaging with people in their social environment. And at a more psychological level, spirituality, optimism and self-esteem are important qualities. Through this, van Breda shows that resilience is not located within the young person, but rather at the interface between the young person and their social environment.

Mann-Feder, whose research is closely aligned with van Breda’s, thinks many of his research findings can be applied to the Quebec model. “These findings demonstrate a need for reform in our current system, as well as systems of care across the world,” she says. “I’m thrilled that our department members were able to hear him speak, and benefit especially from his important work on resilience, which is increasingly a critical concept for youth work intervention.”

Van Breda’s visit was funded in part by the South African National Research Foundation and in part by Concordia. It is hoped that this will become the first in an ongoing series of lectures by visiting scholars for both students and community partners who support the Graduate Program in Youth Work.



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