ABSTRACT
Recognition of children’s and young people’s rights to participate in decision-making about their lives is increasingly included in Australian alternative care and transitions from care policy. Translating this policy into practice presents many challenges for carers and professionals however. This chapter seeks to highlight the ways that policy, research and practice protocols can fail to appreciate the unique experiences of being in care that can lead to care-experienced young people being difficult for professionals to engage with. Participation theory provides various models and guiding principles for how organizations can facilitate participation of young people, though not necessarily with an understanding of alternative care. This chapter considers a number of youth participation initiatives including care-experienced young people in the state of Victoria in Australia that have taken different approaches to co-design and created significant impact on the service system. The chapter concludes by presenting the Adaptive Participation Model to assist in identifying opportunities for participation that are ethical and trauma-informed and achievable within different resourcing contexts.
