“Here we are all different. We don't have the same past, but we have all experienced placementexplains Vic, 24, tucking her blond hair under a woolen hat. Personally, I lived with a host family for four years before joining a collective living space.” Sitting next to him, Emma, 20, explains that she is still being monitored by Child Welfare (ASE), after having experienced life in a foster family for three years. “I have been supported by the ASE all my lifetestifies Matthias, 23 years old. From the nursery to the boarding school, including the children's home and hostels, I experienced everything until I was 21.” Fatima, 26, lived in a foster family from the age of 3 to 17.
Every month, these young people meet in the Montpellier premises of the Departmental Mutual Aid Association for People Received in Child Protection (Adepape). They form the hard core of the Youth Committee, created in May 2022 by the Hérault department. Objectives: create a dialogue between young people entrusted to the ASE today and in the past; better take into account their words and their thoughts. Matthias summarizes: “We are involved in this Youth Committee because we believe that it can help improve child protection and change the way we see children in the ASE.”
“Emotional ruptures”
A heavy and stigmatizing look, as they all point out: “People put us in a box.” But this observation is far from summarizing the pain they may have gone through. “I haven’t seen my special education teacher very often”confides Emma. “The system does not support us towards autonomycontinues Matthias. We are not trained to become adults, ready to face real life.” Fatima denounces “the multiplication of emotional ruptures” children placed in care, tossed between families, social structures and schools according to institutional decisions over which those first concerned have little influence. “What is great about the Youth Committee, souligne Vic, it’s because the department wants to hear our voices.”
Séverine de Montredon, director of the social action and housing department in the department of Hérault, recognizes that these words are precious: “This committee brings a real plus to our institution as well as to our partners, such as social workers and special educators. Some young people told us that they did not understand why, as children, they were placed in care, because they did not have all the elements of understanding. These testimonies confront us with their experiences, with their reality.” The role of the Youth Committee remains consultative, but its participants were involved in the development of the departmental “childhood and family” plan. Adopted at the start of the year, it constitutes the department's roadmap for the next four years. In addition, young people from the Committee testify twice a year during training sessions for social workers.
A “protected” commitment
In Hérault, around 2,800 children are today entrusted to the departmental council. “Figures increasing, as is the number of reports made to the justice system and worrying information reaching us”deplores Séverine de Montredon, who insists on commitment “sanctuary» of his community: “Our children and family policy has been allocated a budget of 219 million euros in 2024, or 12% of the community's overall budget. Hérault is one of the pioneering departments, particularly with regard to major youth contracts. This system is aimed at 18-21 year olds and avoids “dry exits” from the ASE.”
Vic benefited from this system, which allowed him to study performing arts. Fatima is continuing her master's degree in intervention and social development, Matthias has opted for a Sciences Po course and works in a sports club… These young people finally hold the reins of their destinies. And they cherish the same dream: that their committee expands so that as many placed children as possible join them and feel less of the isolation and stigmatization from which they themselves suffered. Vic is working on it: she is preparing a website and a podcast about the committee so that young people staying in homes or foster families can find out about it and come, too, to make their voices heard.
