This inclusive research inspired study explored the experiences of people with learning disabilities working in a Norwegian sheltered employment company. The study aimed at developing knowledge on the working experiences of people with learning disabilities and the impact of their participation in the study. We employed focus groups, supplemented by informal discussions to generate data for the study. Together with the employees and employers, we established two three-member focus groups. The participants, both males and females, discussed their work experiences and the empowering consequences of participating in the research. The data indicated that the employees had desires to work fully in ordinary companies, assuming socially valued roles. The participants experienced a combination of work in ordinary and sheltered employment companies as less stressful and satisfying. The adopted inclusive research strategy empowered our research partners to reflect on their experiences and made efforts to meet their working life dreams.

Most research exploring transition to adulthood for disabled adolescents and young adults has often had the tendency to focus on paediatric to adult healthcare transition. This negligence is a relic from a past where disability was more a medical than a social issue. This is a qualitative study using purposive sampling and in-depth interview. It investigated the experiences of professional service providers working with disabled immigrant adolescents and young adults, age 16-25 in Norway. Transition experience to adulthood is not universal. Every cohort of children; disabled or not, will have challenges and opportunities that influences entry and outcomes to adulthood. However, intersection between immigration background and disability ushers in additional challenges; because many disabled children will inherit, some of the postmigration difficulties their parents encounter. Results from this study revealed service providers experienced challenges related to language and communication, collaboration with parents, inadequate human and material resources and interdisciplinary cooperation.

A major goal of the Child Welfare Services is to provide the best possible support to children in challenging life situations, including cross-cultural children, in Norway. However, there is inadequate knowledge about cross-cultural children’s responsibility taking and its implications for service delivery in Norwegian municipalities. This chapter discusses the importance of increased knowledge of the responsibility-taking practices of cross-cultural children for Municipal Child Welfare Service workers’ service delivery. The authors based the chapter on literature from studies on responsibility-taking experiences of children from Peru, Norway and other countries outside Europe. The literature indicates that many children have responsibilities to work and contribute to the sustenance of their families. Often, the children experienced feelings of identity, belonging and pride in mastering work roles. It is, therefore, difficult to understand the practices of these children as destructive parentification. On the contrary, the expectation that children provide for the upkeep of their families often attracts the destructive parentification label in European countries. Also, we argue that nuanced understanding of cross-cultural children’s responsibility-taking practices and identities may equip Child Welfare Services workers with competence that may enable them to provide the best possible support to cross-cultural children in Norway.