The worries of leaving care and other thoughts

So last week I attened the TACT Charity event 'Vision of the Future; the hopes and fears of a young person leaving care' in Whitehall London.

I was asked to speak at the event and shared briefly my experiances of education and also the role I carry out at Sheffield Hallam Univeristy and my hopes for the future of Care Leavers wishing to go to University. It was a lovely event that was attended by the Children's Minster, Edward Timpson MP and the Shadow Children's Minister, Lisa Nandy MP and fellow Care Leaver Ben Ashcroft.

The event was recorded and I have already been told that my office plans to play the DVD for 'awareness raising'...I really don't want to see myself up there, but I did agree to such things! They played another video during the event which shared the hopes and fears of some care leavers which can be watched below from the link in comments.

It was interesting to talk to a Care Leaver at the end of the event, who is at university but had not been made aware of the support her university was offering to Care Leavers. She told me her university and I was positive that they did offer support, so I promised to look it up and let her know.

After the event I did look it up and her university did offer support, which I now hope she has been able to access. But why was the information not made blindly clear for her?

This made me think a lot about the knowledge of support that is out there for Care Leavers, I know from working every day in this environment that there is a lot of help and documents etc for Care Leavers to tell them what they are eligible for (I am always printing off documents!)... The problem is... It's not being fully accessed.

Is this because it is not being broadcasted well enough? If you know the networks, you will get the information, however if you don't, then the vital information will pass you by and you are none the wiser.

I think a big issue is the money linked to it, now I mean this in a number of ways. The cost of sharing information... which actually isnt that costly as most things can be emailed through networked and printed off when needed. The cost of the research to access the information, again if you are in the networks, it is easy to come across many bits of information - but what about the people who don't know about these networks?

And of course ... the cost of knowledge. This one is a tricky one, one which I have heard murmurs and whispers about, the issue of knowledge being purposely not published or easily assessable so assistance 'doesn't need to be given'. The majority of these complaints have come from Care Leavers wanting information about what support they can get from Local Authorities, with one LA telling a Care Leaver there was no point in them knowing what support there was for HE because they would never get there. So information not being easily found to 'save' money as it won't be accessed.

How can this change? Because it MUST be changed! I think the only real way to change the attitudes of the 'money and knowledge holders' is to make them fully aware of the affects their actions are having on the Care Leavers who are missing out. For them to not just to look at what money have been saved, because it SHOULD NOT be able facts and figures, work with Care Leavers and Looked After Children needs to be about impact - whether that be positive or negative.

I think the media has to play a big part in this too, it doesn't cost media outlets much or anything to share documents and create a national awareness of such things. A simple press of 'Retweet' on Twitter or posting something on their online network.

And maybe I should do more, today I rang one of my students as they had expressed they had had some issues accessed help from their LA, so I sent a document about what CLs who went back home after 16 were eligible for (which BTW in most cases be the same as someone who didn't go back home after 16)

I will post things on here, and on my Twitter, but even this doesn't have a MASSIVE uptake and again, if the network is not being followed... then it's being missed.

I think I may have to put on my thinking cap and try and network to bigger networks to support this!

https://twitter.com/TACTCare

 

 

writers block ?!

So over a month ago now, I wrote another piece for the Guardian... and I still haven't sent it off.. I don't know why, maybe because I am holding myself back or maybe I have been swamped with life and work, and have not had time to sit and think about what I want to write and what I feel about things.

I will send it tomorrow. (brownie promise!)

I have had writers block on something I have been writing for Lisa Cherry and her second book about positive outcomes from negative times.

I think the hardest thing is not having confidence in my words or that I am doing it right, which is stupid because its my life, how can I not tell my life right?!

The other hard thing is having to look down into myself and pick away at why I am the way I am. To look into yourself is a hard thing, to recognise and change is even harder.

I could be writing my piece now, but I am SO tired.. physically and mentally, too tired to pick at myself too much... I have been working massively hard at work to push forward the Looked After Children project and embed the work so it will continue to be done even if I am not there. But most recently its been the Open Day project that has taken the most out of me, long hours and alot of making sure the little jobs are being done, and what has felt like 3 jobs filling the 1 I had just completed. Its a hard job, but I love doing it...

I successfully ran a welcome event in the enrolment week, for Compact students* and Care Leavers, it was a drop in session where I invited the different support teams at the university, from Well being to Disabled Student Support. Students were able to drop in over a few hours, and talk to the support teams if they needed and everyone spent at least 20mins in the room talking and discussing and being supported... I was so happy to see this!

I will be asking for feedback from the students who came in a the next couple of weeks, because its not about how many people the event helped, its about how they were helped and how that will help them succeed at university.

I hope I will have more energy soon, sadly with the students coming back I have been run down for a few weeks now, so have not felt like exercising or getting fresh air which doesn't help my energy levels.. Yes exercising gives me more energy!

Anyway I need sleep as I have not been sleeping well lately (fighting the insomnia!) and I feel pooped!

Night All!!

*Compact students are students who have come through the SHU compact scheme, something for students at schools and colleges that Sheffield Hallam has a partnership with, it is open to students at 6th form or college who are applying to university with extenuating circumstances or low income. The scheme gives extra support through the admissions process.