Hi I am Dyllan one of the YPBMF champions for 2023/24 and I’m going to be telling you about a wonderful ‘In Their Own Words’ event in Leeds I had the pleasure of taking part in between the 12th-14th July!
A bit of Context…
As a bit of prior context before I outline exactly what happened during the event, a survey was sent out to care leavers across the country getting their opinions and viewpoints on a range of issues that care experienced young people chose themselves as priorities. These priority topics were:
- Cost of living,
- Safe & affordable homes,
- Health & mental health,
- Communities of support and
- Support after 21 and post 25.
These survey results were then collated with the aim of presenting them to managers from local authorities to highlight issues care leavers are facing. The survey response was fantastic and over 200 care experienced individuals filled out the survey which made the results so valuable!
Getting to Leeds
Most of my first day involved a long train journey up from my local authority of East Sussex to Leeds, but once I arrived I was amazed at how beautiful the city was as I was en-route to the hotel where I would be staying and where the event would take place. Once checked in, I met the rest of the YPBMF team that I would be doing the event with, including the Champions (myself included), Legends, Sessional workers and core team members. After a great catch-up and introduction, we started preparing for the days ahead and sorting which parts of the survey presentation we were doing in pairs. Once this was completed, we went out for a meal with the NLCBF team and members of the NLCBF Steering Group, which rounded off the whole evening!
First day of the NLCBF Managers Event
The next day began with a lovely breakfast, followed by setting up for the event and greeting and making sure all of the leaving care managers from local authorities knew where they needed to go.
Once the event began, the day followed with a series of interesting sessions which covered a lot of different topics, with additional guest speakers and organisations speaking about all of the amazing projects they have been carrying out in their local authorities. One of my personal favourites of the day was the organisation Quilts for Care Leavers whose founder Maggie Lloyd-Jones’s enthusiasm and passion for her incredible work lit up the entire room. Another highlight was listening to the two YPBMF legends delivering speeches about Post 25 support & supporting young people with their mental health. Quite rightly, the entire event went silent before erupting in applause as everyone was so captivated by their incredible and powerful delivery.
Getting ready for In Their Own Words
While these incredible sessions were taking place during available pockets of the day, myself and the other champions and legends were focused on preparing for the ‘In Their Own words’ survey presentation. For each of the five topics, we had identified specific local and national asks to share. During the preparation process I was a little nervous but felt reassured and supported by the amazing YPBMF team which helped me feel confident to present my topics for the presentation the following day. The day rounded off with a wonderful dinner inside the hotel restaurant, and followed by an extremely musical music bingo amazingly hosted by Toni from the YPBMF team!
The ’In Their Own Words Event’
Moving onto the next day which involved myself and the other champions and legends presenting the survey results mentioned previously on stage, I was feeling quite nervous about getting up on stage in front of the entire audience. Fortunately, from all of the preparation I had done previously as well as the support from all of the incredible YPBMF team I kept pushing myself forward.
Alongside the leaving care managers in person at the event, over 200 decision and policy makers from government, health, accommodation providers and charities working with care leavers from across the UK joined the event online to hear what we had to say.
Once it was time to start the event, we had an introduction from the CEO of Catch22 Naomi Hulston and then it was our turn to present the findings from the ‘In Their Own Words’ survey, where my chosen topics I presented were health & mental health and communities of support.
From the moment I walked on the stage from my seat my heart was pounding, but when I started to introduce the topic to the audience with my YPBMF Legend counterpart all of the preparation kicked in and I confidently explained the results of the survey for my topics.
It felt incredible to be able to present these findings to a whole room full of people who can use them to improve the lives of care leavers in their own local authorities and services!
Linking on from our presentation, everyone attending was invited to make a pledge for what they planned on doing in response to what they had heard. Some of the key pledges that really stood out were:
- Increasing the support towards homes for care leavers,
- Creating strong communities of support such as care leaver hubs
- Increasing the training provision for staff members to better understand the needs of young people they support.
So wrapping up, over the 3 days I was in Leeds for this YPBMF Managers Event, I had a wonderful experience as a YPBMF Champion, and have also learnt a great deal more about being a care leaver! It seems I am not the only one who had a great experience, and as a final note I just wanted to showcase a selection of words attendees used to describe the event:
To find out more about the key findings from the survey & the local and national asks, you can:
Or watch the 10 minute videos of the YPBMF Champions and Legends at the event talking about:
- Cost of Living
- Safe & Affordable Homes
- Health & Mental Health
- Support after 21 and 25
- Creating Communities of Support.
We want to know what you will pledge to do after hearing our key messages to share back with the care experienced individuals involved in In Their Own Words. Please provide feedback and pledges by complete this anonymous short survey once you have viewed our Key message videos.
We are also creating five short reports on these topics, which will be launched in National Care Leavers Week.
Thank you very much for reading!
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