During Summer 2020, the Voices Through Time project ran a series of one-off workshops with care-experienced young people, inspired by Coram’s Foundling Hospital archive.
During one of these sessions, participants learned about how the Foundling Hospital supported pupils to leave and enter work, and what on-going support there was once they had left, contrasting with the support available today.
The session highlighted how little information care-leavers are given about money-management, cooking and food preparation, and working life. The level of support with these things varies dramatically between different local authorities.
Based on these discussions, the group created a Manifesto for Care-Experienced Young People:
We need to tell our own stories about care and be able to see ourselves in the story care
We were all someone’s child once
We need accessible communities
We need to stop seeing young people
We need to stop seeing young people giving up before they’ve even begun
Who have given up on us before you’ve even begun
We were all someone’s child once
We want more support
Support in making health appointments
Support in budgeting
Support in cooking
Why? Because we are super stars
We want to be loved
We don’t want to see any care experienced child fail
We are not numbers, We have names
We don’t want to see inequality
Imbalance between corporate and parenting
Imagine if all freedom was lost
Deprivation were decreased
So declare to acknowledge responsibility
We demand
It’s now or never
We demand equity
We don’t need no more stigmas
Every child matters so why don’t we
Everyone needs to be welcome
We need to plan good futures for everyone
We need to be enjoy our life everyone
Everyone’s life matters if you are black or no colour
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