From isolation to belonging - from surviving to thriving, through connection and community

In this blog post for Care Experience Week 2024, Melody*, a consultant with lived experience at CELCIS offers her thoughts on this year’s theme of ‘Belonging and Connection’. She shares her journey of finding belonging through connection, the importance of community, and her hope that through collaborative working we can all play our part in creating a fairer society for all.

“It’s about…believing our own words”: Bringing together the voices of care experienced people

Rebekah Pierre is a care experienced writer, author, social worker, and editor of a new anthology, ‘Free Loaves on Fridays: The Care System As Told By People Who Actually Get It’, which brings together stories, essays, poems and letters by 100 care experienced children and adults. In this conversation with CELCIS, she discusses the process of developing this anthology and how she hopes the book will help shift the narrative of care experience.

How lived experience of care is helping drive Scotland’s progress towards keeping The Promise

David Anderson is the Co-Chair of the Oversight Board, an independent group set up to report on the progress and pace in Scotland as it journeys towards keeping The Promise it made to the care community following the findings of Scotland’s Independent Care Review in 2020. In this blog post for Care Experienced Week, David discusses the Board’s role and remit, the importance of lived experience, and invites applications from potential new members.

Exploring leadership opportunities for the care experienced community

For this Care Experienced Week we took some time with Barry Black, member of the National Leadership Network (NLN) steering group, and Gary Brown, NLN Development Co-ordinator to find out more about the NLN and how participation at the core of how the Network works in Scotland, and with Sarah Rogers, Participation Associate at CELCIS, who tells us more about a partnership project between the NLN and CELCIS.

Authentic co-production – it’s the right thing to do!

Rosie Moore, Participation and Policy Advisor at CELCIS describes leading on a project that has participation at its core from the very beginning. Genuine co-production is hard! It’s lengthy, slow and makes a lot of U-turns! But when it is done right, when everyone is truly invested in the process, the cause, and the participants, the outcome can be truly incredible.

Developing a village to care for the child (and the family)

As a new report is published by The Why Not? Trust, their Director of Innovation Moira Greentree, discusses the value of finding out how many care experienced teenagers and young people give birth in Scotland each year and how this information will be used to ensure the right support is developed and given in the right way, at the right time.

Could a minimum income guarantee help Scotland to keep The Promise?

For Challenge Poverty Week 2022, Paul Sullivan, Sector Engagement Lead and Lizzie Thomson, Policy Associate at CELCIS look the impact the cost of living crisis is having on families in Scotland, and CELCIS’s involvement in a project co-designed with care experienced children, their families, and partner organisations, to pilot a minimum income guarantee for care leavers in Scotland. They spoke with Sam Upton, a consultant at CELCIS with her own experience of care to get her thoughts.

A Wellbeing Economy: Lifting our gaze for those leaving care

For Challenge Poverty Week 2022, Jimmy Paul, Director at the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll) Scotland, which works to promote a Wellbeing Economy, an economy that delivers social justice and environmental health for all, looks at what he thinks needs to happen for young people to have a smoother transition from care to interdependence, and asks why systems and services default to existing ways of working, instead of exploring new ways to ensure that all families can flourish and live with dignity.

Using my creativity and experience to help other young people make informed choices

Ciara Waugh is an art and design student who has been working with other young people to co-produce national information materials on the right to continuing care for young people. Here she writes about why this project is so close to her heart.

Knowing about continuing care allows for early conversations

Hazel Rogers is new to fostering and here she discusses her journey to find out more about continuing care to give her the confidence to support the young person in her care.