The Africa Network of Care-leaving Researchers (ANCR) (at careleaving.com) has been largely dormant for the past few years. Today, 8 April 2026, we started up again! We held an open online meeting of our members. 22 of our 97 members attended, from around the continent, including a few members from Africa who are working off continent.

We introduced ourselves, our countries and research.

We reflected on the history of ANCR, and the broader history of INTRAC. We remembered and appreciated the many members of INTRAC who supported and championed the inclusion of Africa and other Global South countries into INTRAC: Mark Courtney, John Pinkerton, Varda Mann-Feder, Mike Stein, Mary Collins, Berni Kelly, Robbie Gilligan, Emily Munro, Eavan Brady, and Mandy McDonald, among others.

We reminded ourselves about the research we have done on the continent, including the large UK-funded Building Positive Futures study with Prof Berni Kelly.

We celebrated the 201 or more publications that have emerged from this continent, starting in 2003.

We discussed the kinds of things we want to accomplish as a research network, including building African scholarship, increasing our visibility in the global arena, translating our research findings into policy and practice, involving care-leavers and care-leaver networks more actively in the design and dissemination of research findings, and drawing alongside service providers to support them with research that is meaningful to their work.

We look forward to a flourishing of care-leaving research and research-informed policy, programme and practice.