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Advocacy for all children in care and happy, healing childhoods for all are among the wishes expressed by a local advocacy group for 2021.
Jersey Cares is an independent organisation with a vision of "love, belonging and opportunity for people with experience of care."
The organitsation provides one-to-one advocacy for children and young people in care. They also aim to hold the Government accountable for fulfilling children's wishes and to amplify the voices and needs of people with care experience.
Express spoke to Jersey Cares about their hopes and wishes for the next year...
Pictured: "At Jersey Cares we believe that everybody needs somebody who loves them, somewhere they belong and something to aspire to."
At Jersey Cares we believe that everybody needs somebody who loves them, somewhere they belong and something to aspire to. A blindingly obvious statement perhaps, but it highlights three key areas which the care system, all too often, doesn’t make room for. A bureaucracy makes a clumsy parent.
Our journey began in 2018. We visited Scotland and heard a vision of care where children heal from trauma, enjoy a childhood, and belong – be that with their birth family or with new relationships which are enabled to endure. A ‘care system’ where children are claimed, and hearts are healed.
When we came home, we listened closely to people with experience of care, the widest range of professionals and experts from elsewhere, asking ‘what would it take for people with experience of care in Jersey to feel heard'. We built our model from this learning.
Pictured: Jersey Cares advocates for all children and young people with experience of care.
What do you do when life throws you a high-stakes situation, one which involves navigating a system you don’t fully understand? This could be buying a house, challenging your employer, or experiencing marital separation.
You bring in someone who knows that system, who is independent of the house seller, the employer, or your spouse. That person helps you understand the system, speaks out for, and protects your interests.
When a child goes into care, the stakes couldn’t be higher. The kinds of questions being debated are ‘Can Mia see her Dad?’, ‘Can Theo return home?’ and ‘Will Abbie live with her brother?’.
Pictured: "When a child goes into care, the stakes couldn’t be higher."
When a situation is at its most serious, the child’s questions of ‘can I have my make up?’ or ‘can I eat mango’ might seem insignificant. However, if a child knows they are heard in the small things, they are more likely to trust adults with the big things.
This might include when they are feeling unsafe, but in another moment can be sharing and daring to work towards their dreams.
This year we have offered advocacy to 50 people aged 10 – 25. In 2021, we would like advocacy to be offered to all children and young people living off-island and to all children in care.
Pictured: Radical change is needed so that children in care can ‘live their life as any other child would’.
'My wish for a LAC [looked after child], is for them to feel at home in a Care Home. For them to be able to express their views without feeling angry. For them to live their life as any other child would. I wish for children in care to truly feel cared for' Quinlan McFarland.
Radical change is needed so that children in care can ‘live their life as any other child would’. Advocacy enables us to collate some of the key areas where change is needed. This year these have been adult mental health, access to education, access to the Care Leaver’s Offer - the Governments ‘statutory promise’ to young people aged 18-25 - and receiving ‘case files’, very often telling a story of someone’s trauma.
Pictured: Jersey Cares frequently receives ‘case files’, which very often tell the story of someone’s trauma.
We have influenced policy and challenged emergency legislation where it failed to uphold children’s best interests or their safety. There is now high-level policy promises of ‘safe, stable, loving homes’ and treating children in care like you would your own.
We have held events, big and small, virtual and including an inflatable unicorn - a twist on the ‘elephant in the room’ - to bring together strategic decision makers with the young people whose lives they affect.
Video: Scottish peers working to transform care joined Jersey Cares to share a vision and a hope with the community #jerseyscotlandcares.
In 2021, we would like to develop creative, playful digital ways of expressing views and ideas on how ‘care’ could and should look.
We have been blown away by the regular offers of help and support. Advocacy issues span a range of issues and local professionals with a range of expertise have provided invaluable assistance. When young people have needed connections, information, or opportunities, so many people have happily stepped up to provide this.
During lockdown, we made ‘nurture parcels’ and local businesses offered truck-loads of gadgets and toys as well as lovely handmade gifts.
We have friends and peers in Leeds, Scotland, New Zealand, and Ireland who have been generous in the extreme in sharing their learning, wisdom, and friendship.
Pictured: Jersey Cares has friends and peers in Leeds, Ireland, New Zealand, and Scotland.
We benefit greatly and are touched by the financial support of the Philip Gower Charitable Foundation as well as individuals who have supported activities like Sunday lunch out or competitive cake-baking over Zoom!
In 2021, we would like to get better at linking the many, many people who care with tangible opportunities to show that care – so that, together, we can enable happy, healing childhoods and love that endures a lifetime."
Call 01534 509856 or email info@jerseycares.je to get in touch with Jersey Cares.
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