This article presents the findings of a study into the effectiveness of trained volunteers working with families where substance abuse was identified as an issue. The study was initiated by Mater Family Support (now known as Mater Parent Aide Unit), Mater Health Services, Brisbane, and funded by the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services (now known as the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs). The goals of the study were to begin to understand the effectiveness of volunteer Parent Aide services that have been provided to myriad client groups over many years. The findings demonstrate that the services are valued by this particular target group. This is summed up in the words of one participant who said, ‘Government has to fund this for more people because there are so many people I know who could use it, but haven’t been offered the chance’. Replication of the study with other client groups will further enhance understanding of volunteer service provider effectiveness.

Children enter state care because their parents are unable to care for them or because of abuse and neglect. Invariably they experience considerable distress and emotional trauma with many having clinically significant mental health problems. Few, however, receive the assessment, counselling and supportive services that they need. When they leave care, many experience extensive problems including mental health difficulties, unemployment, poverty, homelessness, drug abuse, relationship difficulties and lack of social support.

This paper will discuss the findings of a qualitative study utilising in-depth interviews with young people who have been in state care. Illustrations of their pathways to and from care will highlight their experiences, and direct quotations from the participants will provide particular insights into the complex issues they have had to confront.

The paper will outline key opportunities for prevention and intervention approaches at various points along these pathways.

This article builds on research work undertaken by MacKillop Family Services on the experience of care leavers to explore the importance of the relational aspects of human service work. Recent legislative changes have focused on the availability of services and supports to young people transitioning from care. The authors suggest that it is time to refocus attention on the relationships between young people leaving care and human service workers. Such a discussion opens up models of practice that encourage flexible and participatory approaches.

Young people leaving state care have been found to experience deficits in all aspects of their life cycle. These include homelessness, poor educational and employment outcomes, involvement in juvenile crime and prostitution, mental and physical health problems, early parenthood and inadequate social support systems. These poor outcomes experienced by care leavers result from a range of factors relating to their pre-care abuse and neglect, poor quality and unstable care history and inadequate support for their successful transition to independence. Young people leaving state care in Victoria are currently lacking the ongoing and guaranteed support that would be expected of a good parent. Using relevant local and international literature and findings from a qualitative study involving 10 care leavers, this paper examines the factors that contribute to negative as well as positive outcomes for young people leaving state care. Some conclusions are drawn regarding policy and practice reforms that could lead to improved outcomes for care leavers.

‘Whitelion’ is a non profit organisation that supports disadvantaged young people and helps make our community a more inclusive and safer place. Each year thousands of youths are disconnected from their families and our community due to abuse, neglect, drug addiction and poverty. These young people have often had horrific life experiences with few positive role models and are caught in a ‘cycle of discouragement’. Many of them end up in out-of-home care or the juvenile justice system. Whitelion gives them the best chance to ‘break the cycle’ through positive role modelling, mentoring and employment, and the opportunity to build positive lives for themselves.

Clare Griffin is the Mentoring Team Leader at Whitelion. She has worked with young people involved with the out-of-home care system in a variety of roles over the past eight years.

Drawing from the work of Norbert Elias, this paper examines the infant welfare movement in Australia in the inter-war years. Elias maintains that during the course of what he describes as the ‘civilising process’, the psychological and behavioural distance between adults and children has increased. As a result of this growing distance, the period of childhood has become longer and the process of the transition to adulthood more complex. In this way, parenthood is experienced as an increasingly difficult task, and one that does not come naturally but requires education and training. It is the contention of this paper that the infant welfare movement, with its emphasis on parental education, can be understood as part of the civilising process: as an unintended consequence of the growing distance between children and adults.