Children Looked After – Changing the Narrative of the Care System

By Admin on June 6, 2016 • ( 0 )

Young people have been asked to support a National Initiative which aspires to change the narrative of the care system with the following aim.

“To change the narrative of the care system with a focus on relationships when in care, and to tackle the negative views other people have of the care system head-on”.

We would like to know:

Who in the care system has made the biggest difference to them
Why/ How has this made a difference

This is what young people said:

Young Asylum Seekers

Care Leavers

Who in the care system has made the biggest difference to you and why

Poems – Care leaver, 18

Joined at 16, Changed at 18
Made friends, made a family
Travel up and down the country
Birmingham, London, Chester and Worthing
We go on trips and have fun days
We meet professionals and make a difference
I have been changed from this age,
Confident, outspoken, caring and determined
Changed names, seen faces, MPs, social workers and big bosses
Been told what to do all thanks to you
I speak to a crowd, proud and loud
Who could have imagined me being this way
3 years ago when I was lost, quiet and shy
Now I feel like I’m way up high
Thanks to cicc for all you do, I’ve turned new fresh and relived
I’m now going to strive.

2nd Poem

I sit round a table with some other young people,
300 eyes staring at me, young, old, male, female, faces serious like they are really to judge
Along came the man who asks all the questions
I speak my opinion loud and clear on the microphone that appeared
I finish my speech and start to relax the next thing I know they are starting to clap
300 people and the rest on the web, I did it, I spoke in front of all those people!
3 years ago I hid in the class wouldn’t speak, go red and start to share
15 years old and scared of a class of 20, how I talk to hundreds of people
CiCC changed my life and turned me around to a confident and proud
Speaking out, they changed me, they helped me, I can’t believe who I am today
Thank you to the group, the friends and workers
It’s my new way
I’m changed.