Abstract

The article describes some of the most important distortions of children's deinstitutionalization in Calabria. The research contribution, based on qualitative methods, focuses on decision-making and planning processes concerning children in residential care (who cannot, temporarily or indefinitely, live with their parents) characterized by an high degree of social and institutional isolation, within the fragile context of the local welfare. The absence of a widespread network between formal and informal actors involved in children care and protection, in particular between Social Services and no profit organizations who manage residential care, has negative effects on the quality of care, on children's life chances on stigmatizing outcomes for children and their families.