Il visiting advocacy in comunità di accoglienza. La voce dei bambini e dei ragazzi

This paper presents the implementation of the first Italian visiting advocacy project. For the Italian child protection services, professional independent advocacy is an innovative practice. This action research aimed to develop professional advocacy as a way to give voice to looked after children and young people, and to promote their participation. The research studies the introduction of an independent advocate working at two residential care for children aged between 6 and 18 years. The paper reports the process to set up the visiting advocacy project, the activities worked out by the advocate with children and young people and a final evaluation taking account of the children’s and care social workers’ point of views.