Care Experienced Week

Care Experienced Week 2022

This Care Experienced week, we loved being back together in person at lots of different events all over Scotland! Check out some of the different things our members got up to during the week!

AGM & Members’ Assembly

The Members’ Assembly was the perfect setting to kick-start Care Experience Week. Members came together at St Lukes to enjoy a catch up over a bacon roll and a cuppa before we got down to business with the AGM. During which, members voted in five new Board Members and learned more about the inner workings of the organisation. We said good-bye to Alicia Santana, Euan Haggerty and Lee Davidson as they stepped down from the board. We’d like to thank them for their hard work and dedication during their time on the board. Chair of the board, Ryan McCuaig was re-elected to serve for another four years. We’re delighted to keep you, Ryan!

After the AGM, we launched our new strategic plan, Our Voice, Our Community, Our Future, which will guide our work for the next four years. To launch the plan, Louise Hunter gave a short speech and then we heard from each of our directors on the five different priorities. These are: Upholding Rights; Influencing Change; Creating Connection; Providing Opportunities; and Creating Communities That Care.

Members got to engage with each of the priorities by answering questions on each and adding their thoughts to our big hearts before passing them to the next table. We even had Anas Sarwar MSP, Jackie Baillie MSP and Clare Haughey, the Minister for Children and Young people, involved in the activity.

Find out more about the strategic plan on page 19.

The event ended with a rally cry from NRB member, Oisin King, to tell everyone to collect a placard and march to the start of the Love Rally.

Care Experienced Week 2022

Love Rally

One of our members, Charlie, has written about her day at The Love Rally:

My name is Charlie and I stay in Renfrewshire. I have been a member for many years and always try and get along to the events.

This year, I joined the Love Rally in Glasgow, and it was such a great day as I got to walk beside people I hadn’t seen for a while. I’m so glad to have been part of something that was amazing and very special. It’s so important for Care Experienced people to know that there are people that understand and support them and try to make communities more caring towards us. The Love Rally is an excellent platform to showcase this community support.

The week before the rally, a group of us in Renfrewshire had a banner-making workshop. We ate pizza and listened to music while we talked about the messages we thought were important. We brought these along with us on the day and carried messages of support from people that couldn’t make it. I marched right at the front! It was such a good day, I was buzzing!

Charlie was joined by more than 500 people on the rally, marching from Glasgow Green to George Square. It was brilliant to see so many familiar faces and to be joined by politicians and Corporate Parents. Keeping the pace were Glasgow-based band, Samba Ya Bamba. Their upbeat drumming kept our marchers in the spirit, despite a bit of Glasgow drizzle!

At the end of the march, we heard inspiring speeches from Care Experienced campaigners; Carmel Jacob, Charlotte Armitage, Thomas Carlton, Jasmin Pilling and Eireann McAuley. Carmel recited her poem To The Care Experienced One’s and Thomas reflected on how far we’ve come with The Promise. You can find some videos of the speeches on our Instagram or Facebook pages.

Care Experienced Week 2022

The Wee Meet

On the Tuesday of Care Experienced Week, we held The Wee Meet in Glasgow. The event was full of engaging and meaningful discussions with Care Experienced parents.

It was made up of a ‘marketplace’ with different stalls. We had 3 stalls hosted by our NRB reps Amie, Jasmin and Lynda on our Care Experienced parents APP report, Believe in Us. There was also a stall for our helpline, one for The Village and one from Cardiff University’s Care Experienced Parents Charter of Rights project.

Lanarkshire Showcase

By G McConnell

The Lanarkshire Showcase was on again and bigger than last year. I really like that we have it each year as it gives young people the opportunity to show what their talents are to all corporate parents. I was so impressed with the turnout!

This year, the atmosphere was great and everyone spoke to one another and was really supportive. We all gave each other praise when seeing each other’s work – which I love. There were lots of performances such as singing, crafts, mental health work, language bin and much more.

I was involved in the singing on the video from the Reeltime project which got a really good response.

I think the showcase is so important as it keeps everyone close together and gives young people a spotlight to show off all their work. I’m looking forward to taking part in it next year and seeing all the different skills and talents on the different young people.

Care Experienced Week 2022

Time to Shine

To mark the end of Care Experienced Week, 300 of our members and their families took off on an out-of-this-world experience at our Time to Shine festival.

We filled the dancefloors of SWG3 in Glasgow on Saturday 29th October. This year’s theme was ‘Outer Space’ and we made sure our Care Experienced attendees, their families and friends had the chance to travel through time and space whilst taking part in a number of fun intergalactic activities.

There was a hover board simulator, a bungee run to experience zero gravity, a star beads workshop to make space-themed jewelry, a chill-out pod where you could gaze at the stars, alien face painting, a lunar disco and much more!

In our cosmic canteen, our guests got to enjoy tasty burgers from Freddy & Hicks and delicious pizzas from the Woodfired Guys – enough to satisfy the hungriest voyager after a long day exploring the galaxy.

Before everyone headed home in their rocket ships, we announced our fancy dress competition winners with the help of Buddy the bear. The best-dressed prizes went to The Shaded Voyager, an American Astronaut and a light-up googley-eyed costume!