Educational Alternatives, Volume 21, 2023

Rezumat: The research started from the observation that only the simple allocation of resources - material and financial - does not explain the development of adolescents and young people, as is the case with placement centers where, in apparently equal conditions, there are highly different results. The study aims to contribute to the understanding of the perception of this category of beneficiaries of the child protection system regarding the situation in which they are, the plans and directions of future development concerning the resources held, and the identification of some resilient mechanisms of interaction between the individual and the social context. The data were collected through three focus groups held in residential care in Iași county (Romania) and three semi-structured interviews that included adolescents and young people who were in residential care (N1 = 20) and who left the system of child protection (N2 = 13). The results revealed that the purposes of these young people do not differ from those of their colleagues who are not in residential care (school, career, family). However, their translation into practice is problematic and, as a result, with increasing age and leaving the protection system, there is an adaptation of the concrete objectives to the available resources (employment, work abroad). Goals alone are insufficient to support development, but resources (social, material, individual qualities) and social opportunities are needed.