LIFESTYLE
Celebrating You! C
elebrating you is a space for you guys to tell us what you’ve been getting up to and to share anything you might be really proud of. We love getting stuff from you, so please send in your poems, stories, pictures, jokes or tell us about something you’ve done, your favourite hobby or a new pet, and we’ll include it in the next issue of SpeakOut. membership@whocaresscotland.org 40 Wellington Street, Glasgow, G2 6HJ
Glasgow Caledonian University Students Raise £553 for Who Cares? Scotland
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n March 2020, one of our Assistant Editors and Training and Education Officer, Emma BranniganMcQueen, ran a session with social work students at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) as part of the innovative Advanced Social Work Skills module, which was developed by GCU, University of the West of Scotland (UWS) and Strathclyde University. This module provides students with learning experiences to support their practical skills ahead of their final year placement and eventual move into their role as a social worker. The session focused on access to care records for Care Experienced people and the journey this takes our community on. Emma’s input explored the emotional impact on the Care Experienced individual. The goal of the session was to help students understand the barriers and challenges involved in gaining access to care records, and this input focused heavily on how to bring love and human care into a process that can often feel cold, detached and daunting. After the session, David Clarke, the lecturer in the School of Health and Life Sciences at GCU got in touch with Emma. He wanted to let her know that the students had really engaged with the input and were so moved by the session that they started a fundraiser for Who Cares? Scotland! Third-year student Barbara Czyrwik set up a JustGiving page for Who Cares? Scotland after
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discussions with David and her fellow students following the session. Barbara said: “We received the guest lecture from Who Cares? Scotland and their input just made such a big difference to our learning. When a social worker compiles a record of someone who’s went through the care system, there’s the chance in the future that the individual would like to access it. I imagine it must be a really powerful moment for them to see so much information about their life and it’s amazing that the charity provides such great support - I never realised it was such an emotional process! The presentation really contributed to our learning, and it was great to see them take the time to talk with us. Our lecturer, Dave Clarke, realised we liked it a lot and suggested doing a fundraiser - I was desperate to help.” In the end, the JustGiving page raised £553 for Who Cares? Scotland. This is an amazing amount raised and we are so thankful to David, Barbara, the students and everyone who donated to our organisation. We will ensure that the money goes to helping our Care Experienced community even further. We are so happy that our input has made such an impact on the students. Outcomes like this show how vital our work at Who Cares? Scotland is when it comes to influencing and educating those who have the privilege to support our Care Experienced community.
