Residential Child and Youth Care in Italy

This article provides a brief outline of the historical development of Residential Child and Youth Care in Italy as a De-Instutitionalisation process, started at the end of the 50s, and an overview of the current situation of children and young people in residential care. Child and Youth Residential Care in Italy is closely linked with the grand tradition of Italian and European social pedagogy (Kornbeck, 2009; Premoli, 2012) and takes shape in the struggle for an ordinary life for every child. At the end exploring the Italian case it seems to be the game of dialogue between global influences in child and youth care and local rooted care practices. There is no longer a purely ‘Italian’ way – if there ever was one – of furnishing residential care for children and adolescents: rather, there is a complex interaction between changes and innovations occurring in various countries like Italy,¬ on the one hand, and the knowledge, best practices, and evidences disseminated by the literature and international exchanges on the other.