Vitoria Vicente from Brazil grew up in alternative care and currently lives in a youth home provided by SOS Children’s Villages and the government. Like so many across the world who must eventually leave alternative care – a range of solutions provided to children and young people who cannot live with their immediate families – she was failed by a system that was unable to meet, or even acknowledge, her needs.

Governments across the world are failing care leavers. Once they reach the age of 18 in most countries, those leaving care are offered little or no state support. Without the family network and sense of belonging that most of us take for granted, these vulnerable young people must fend for themselves.

But basic services are lacking, and care leavers are much less likely than their peers to be in education or employment. They are conversely more likely to be homeless and have higher incarceration and suicide rates.

Research into protection for care leavers in Latin America and the Caribbean

In 2023 SOS Children's Villages International undertook a mapping exercise in the Latin America and Caribbean region to ascertain the degree of protection for care leavers in 20 countries. The research found that despite regulations and legal provisions structuring alternative care, most countries do not sufficiently address the transition from care to autonomy.

Furthermore, existing public policy in these countries raises only in the most general terms the need for the preparation of young people before they leave this care, and – crucially – lack specific technical guidelines as to how programs should be implemented.

The report also found that the majority of existing initiatives to support young people leaving alternative care were led by NGOs. Many of the initiatives were geographically limited or focused solely on providing financial assistance, without offering any form of psychosocial support. National-level support for care leavers was rare — in the 20 countries reviewed, only five countries offered some form of national support provided directly by the government.

Argentina enacted law to protect care leavers

The mapping exercise did, however, establish that one country, Argentina, has implemented protection for care leavers as a matter of law. In a move in part driven by Aldeas Infantiles SOS Argentina/SOS Children's Villages Argentina, the parliament of Argentina enacted the Program of Accompaniment for the Leaving Care of Youth without Parental Care (PAE) law in 2017. This established a series of rights and entitlements for young adults leaving alternative care from the age of 13 to at least 21, and up to 25 if the individual concerned needs to complete their studies or receive training.

The law has two central pillars. Each care leaver is assigned a case worker who guides their charge through the complexities of independent living. The care leaver must be given access to information and support on a range of topics that cover health and sexual health, responsible procreation and family planning; education, training and employment; housing; human rights and citizenship training; family and social networks; recreation and leisure time; independent living skills; identity; financial planning and money management.

As Alejo Brosio, Advocacy Advisor to Aldeas Infantiles SOS Argentina explains, "These areas were not arbitrarily chosen, but respond to the needs and obstacles that adolescents and young people without parental care face in their transition to autonomy."

Law provides comprehensive protection for care leavers

Secondly, each care leaver receives a monthly financial allowance equal to (and no greater than) 80 per cent of the national minimum wage. Taken together, the two measures mean that care leavers are less likely to 'fall between the cracks' of different government agencies, as is so often the case elsewhere.

These two pillars are underpinned by a vital principle: that participants must give informed consent to join the program, and indeed to leave and re-join the program should they wish to. As Alejo points out, this "prevents 'mediated entry', a form of discretionary selection whereby only the most deserving young people are included in the program."

Approximately 2,000 young people in Argentina have benefited from the program since it came on stream 90 days after the law was enacted. There are two distinct reasons for this success.

Design of the law participatory and inclusive

The first can be traced back to the decision to make the process of designing the law as participatory and inclusive as possible. Young people and care leavers were consulted at every step, and as Lucia Buratovich, Programmes Advisor to Aldeas Infantiles SOS Argentina makes clear, without their inclusion, it is probable that only the financial allowance would have made it into law. The participatory process, she says, "really put the focus on care leavers and the things they need for support. That's why this law is so comprehensive in Argentina."

The second is the very fact that the program was enshrined in law. This means that the program cannot be arbitrarily cancelled and that care leavers have a legal right to the services laid down by legislation.

SOS Children's Villages Standards presented at ECOSOC UN Youth Forum 2025

With Argentina's law as a model for the way forward, SOS Children's Villages International has since commissioned a series of standards for the protection of young people leaving care. International Standards and Recommendations on the Right of Leaving Care of Children, Adolescents and Young People deprived of Family Care, drawn up by experts from Madrid's Comillas Pontifical University, was presented at the United Nations Economic and Social (ECOSOC) Youth Forum in New York in April.

The ECOSOC Youth Forum is the largest annual gathering of young people at the United Nations. During the Forum, SOS Children’s Villages, with the support of the Permanent Missions of Chile and Uruguay to the UN, the Government of Spain, and Comillas Pontifical University, hosted a side event to share lessons from Ibero-America on developing policies with and for young people leaving care. The event featured the launch of the Declaration on Leaving Care, created by young people and validated by 200 care leavers from 15 Ibero-American countries.

"Through this event, we hope we can bring visibility to the realities of thousands of care leavers across Ibero-America and inspire States to recognize their responsibility as duty-bearers in ensuring the comprehensive support the young people need to transition safely and supported into independent living, truly thriving and breaking cycles of exclusion and violence," says Jessica Ugalde, SOS Children's Villages International Regional Advisor for Programs and Youth.

Care leavers need more than financial support

Young people were present at the UN Forum’s side event to deliver their messages to leaders about the needs of care leavers. Among them is Tally Arriagada Ávila, 26, a care leaver activist in Chile. In his country, he says, an emphasis is placed only on reunifying care leavers with family members, rather than access to well-established support services. The government should prioritize support including for employment, education, health, and documentation, he says.

“If we already have clear evidence that a young person will not have a successful family reunification, or even if they do, there should be a comprehensive effort, just like the one for family reunification, to promote the autonomous and personal development of each young person who leaves care.”

Vitoria of Brazil came to the UN with a message that financial support is only part of the issue. The real challenge is to establish a system that allows care leavers to receive the human contact and support that they need to flourish.

"I truly believe that what’s missing – what’s really needed – is psychological support,” she says. “Financially, over time, we can manage and become independent. At least for me, that wasn’t the biggest issue. The biggest problem was not having anyone to rely on."

Other countries must enact a law similar to Argentina's. The ECOSOC Youth Forum provides an ideal opportunity for the world's governments to listen to care leavers and acknowledge the value and importance of the standards, and to adopt these measures as a matter of course. Once care leavers are protected by law, their chances in life immeasurably improve – and everyone benefits.