Institutional care for street children and adolescent: Research and public policies

• Autor(a) principal: Couto, Renata Mena Brasil do
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Rizzini, Irene
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Textos & contextos (Porto Alegre)
• Texto Completo: https://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/ojs/index.php/fass/article/view/39173
• topic: institutional care; children and youth; street situation; acolhimento institucional; adolescentes; situação de rua

In this article, the authors analyze the results of a study conducted with children and adolescents in institutional care about their trajectories living on the streets. The study included 271 young people between the ages of seven and eighteen in the seventeen Brazilian cities with populations of more than one million. A majority of our sample was male, adolescent and black. The study includes their difficulties in accessing school and work, the violence experienced on the streets, their family environments, and the limits of the protection provided by the care networks. We examine the importance of involving families in the institutional care of the young people, given the temporary and exceptional nature of institutional care. We also point out the particularities of their street trajectories which demand different strategies for caring. The norms which guide the current debate are considered with the intention of reporting them but also to alert researchers and professionals to the discussions about the implementation and monitoring of existing policies.