Paper short abstract:

Juvenile facilities avoid making and make their residents feel at home since they are defined as "a temporary or transitory place" as well as "a place to live". By studying social workers' practices and speeches we analyse these seemingly contradictory statements and their implications.

Paper long abstract:

Social workers define juvenile facilities* as "a temporary or transitory place" as well as "a place to live". Its definition includes two seemingly contradictory statements.

Indeed the first statement indicates that institutionalized juvenile are supposed to stay only as long as personal and family problems have been solved. The second statement points out that youth frequently spend several months, sometimes even years, in these facilities.

The sensation of being at home in a facility can help teenagers to grow up, become more autonomous and better integrated into the global society and, at the same time, it can keep them apart from their family and the actual world.

Towards the feeling of "being at home" that juveniles may develop after a few months of residency, social workers have contradictory perceptions and strategies. First we investigate facility spaces, geographic organization, furniture and decoration on the walls that reveal the ambiguity between personal and impersonal atmospheres. Second we analyze social workers' speeches on how teenagers should feel, how some discomfort has to be convene to help their pupils moving on.

How do juvenile facilities make or avoid making their residents feel at home? What does it mean feeling at home while living in an institution? What are the possible implications for post-institutional life? These are the questions we attend to answer in this communication.

* A study (using participant observation, photographs and interviews) was conducted in Geneva in three juvenile facilities for teenagers (14-18 years old) institutionalized because of parental abuse or delinquency.