Professor Collins Shares Expertise at First Care-Leaving Conference in Africa

April 17, 2019

Care-leaving, a term for the transition out of foster or residential care, is a growing topic of social work scholarship in Africa.

In Johannesburg, South Africa, BUSSW Professor Mary Collins recently joined several scholars for a three-day workshop and conference where Collins shared her expertise on youth aging out of foster care. The event focused on supporting scholars to develop relationships with other care-leaving researchers and constructing a foundation for multi-national research on the topic in Africa.

According to Collins, “While I was thrilled to participate in these two academic events with international scholars and to share some of my research ideas that may be helpful, I was particularly pleased to learn so much about social work, youth work, and care-leaving practice in several African countries.” In addition to South Africa, attendees joined the event from countries including Ghana, Lesotho, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and Uganda. Ten of these scholars also presented at the conference – the first in Africa to focus exclusively on care-leaving.

The events were hosted by the Department of Social Work at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) in partnership with Queen’s University, Belfast (QUB), the Africa Network of Care-leaving Researchers (ANCR) and Girls and Boys Town South Africa (GBT).

Collins looks forward to reconnecting with the event’s organizer in April, when he will be in Boston to visit two employment programs described by Collins at the Care-leaving Conference.