Chapter 1: Young People Transitioning From Out-Of-Home Care (OOHC) in the State of Victoria¹ Available to Purchase

Young people transitioning from forms of out-of-home care (OOHC), such as foster, kinship, and residential group home care (known as care leavers), are globally a vulnerable group. Many experience volatile transitions to adulthood, resulting in limited life chances. A disproportionate number of care leavers in Australia come from First Nations backgrounds, which is also the case for this cohort in Canada and New Zealand.

There has been long-standing public awareness in Australia of care leaver disadvantage, and considerable research evidence as to the failures of existing policies, and the urgent need for policy and practice reform. Multiple studies have demonstrated that it is inadequate to cease financial support to these youth once they turn 18 years and to expect them to suddenly transition to self-reliant adulthood without any of the ongoing family and social supports that most of their noncare peers access until at least 25 years of age. Yet it was only in response to the Home Stretch advocacy campaign that all eight Australian States and Territories finally introduced (by the end of 2022) extended care supports to care leavers till 21 years of age.

Drawing on my 25 years of engagement in care leaver research, this chapter critically examines the social and economic arguments that were used by governments over three decades to delay reform and details the contrasting evidence presented in favor of policy change. It then analyzes the key strategies used by the Home Stretch campaign and explains why they succeeded when earlier advocacy activities had failed.