Care Leavers' Association

An ever growing union of care leavers

 

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Notes from the CLA
Dec 09, 2009 Print PDF

Care Leavers' Keep In Touch Events: Your Views

On Monday, Zachari and Jim held a 'keep in touch' meeting for care leavers in Glasgow. It was well-attended, with people travelling from as far afield as Edinburgh and Perth. It was an informal gathering, for a few hours, in a cafe in central Glasgow and gave people a chance to meet with other care leavers and find out more about the CLA. The age of the people there ranged from 18 to mid 60's.

In October, Will held a 'keep in touch' event in London, which also had a great turn-out and hopefully the group is going to meet up again soon.

Over the past five years or so, we have been trying out different methods of meetings and events for care leavers. We know that many people are keen to meet up with others who spent time in care as children.  However, some of our events have attracted lots of people, whilst other times very few people have turned up.

We are keen to hear from care leavers, of all ages, their ideas about how these types of events should be held. At the moment, we are holding evening meetings, during the week and these seem to be going well.

 We would like to hear if you are interested in meeting up in this way and  also if you are not. We would also be keen to hear whether there are any barriers to attending, that we may not have thought of.

 Any and all feedback is really appreciated so that we can make sure we are getting this bit of our work right!


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Posted by: Victoria in General
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written by Gordon (flash) McGarry, December 10, 2009 19:19
Hi I've never blogged before but here goes. I have been in 5 homes as a child in England I am 62 now. I live in N/Ireland now; it is considered to be a disgrace, or not nice to have been in care. I have in the past referred to my past as being in a boarding school. I would love to go to a meeting locally to discuss life in care and see what things come up at a meeting. I don't think people in my age bracket respond on the careleaversreunighted site I have requested 5/6 as friends in the last two weeks with no reply. Gordon
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written by Arnold Napier, December 11, 2009 11:15
I have sent emails to the Care Leavers before but they have never been acknowledged. I was in Barnardos Homes for over 7yrs from 1935 to 1942, I was sent from Belfast to Barnardos London headqaurters in Stepney then to Boys Garden City from there my older brother and I was sent to a foster mother with the result we were brutally physically abused and starved for over four years before we ran away to the Sunday school teacher and told her of the treatment we had gone through,within one month we were back in Boys Garden City before being transferred to another boys home until we finally went back to Belfast during the 2nd WW.
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written by Victoria Hull, December 15, 2009 12:33
Dear Gordon and Arnold,

Thank you both for your posts.

Arnold, I'm sorry to hear you've had problems receiving a response. We recently re-launched our CareleaversReunited website, one of the reasons was that we were having some problems with the older version because usage of the website grew so rapidly. One of the problems was that we didn't always receive emails that were sent to the Careleaversreunited address. I'm sorry if that occurred here with you.

Gordon, I'm sorry to hear that you experience stigma as a result of being a care leaver. One of the CLA's aims is to challenge negative public perceptions of young people in care and care leavers and to try to break down that kind of stigma. It would be fantastic if we could get a local group going in Northern Ireland. At the moment, we are just building up our work in this area. It is really important we get feedback from care leavers so we know what the demand is and how to shape our activities appropriately.

The re-launched version of the CareleaversReunited website has not been live for long and I think people are just getting used to the new features. Hopefully people will get the hang of it and accept those friend requests soon!

We are really excited about the new features. There is the potential there for people to have much more interaction with other people from care, but it is also a much more secure, safe space, as people can manage their own privacy settings.

If either of you have any further thoughts or questions, don't hesitate to contact me at the office.

Best,

Victoria
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written by keith dickinson, January 28, 2010 14:38
i been in care from the age of 9 i remember been in street lane home a.k.a alverton there was 3 home and a school an the grounds i was there with my brother i can slighty rember i had two rooms with a sitting room and a dining room i was at 1 end and my brother was at the other after leaving there i went to few foster homes and ened up place called springfield near yeadon it waslike a boarding scholl mixed with boys and girls there all so had the own class rooms then i went to a foster home and ened up in a children home in headingley untill i was sixteen i would like to get in touch with ppl that was in streetlane,homlfeild,in headingley and spring field in yeadon just 2 see how you doing
Success
written by eileen munro, February 01, 2010 02:31
Having recently registered on this site. I am pleased to say someone has made contact with me and i am very much looking forward to discussing our time in the care home with them, though this is not without intrepedation, as you can imagine, it is nonetheless welcomed and no doubt a mutally beneficial for both of us. A result!

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