To mark National Care Leavers’ Month (NCLM), we sat down with Victoria Odude, our YPBMF and Steering Group Representative, to hear more about her personal journey, the role she plays in NLCBF and YPBMF, and her take on NCLM.
As a reminder, this year’s theme is ‘Rising As Me: Overcoming challenges, transforming, and finding your identity’. It speaks to the resilience that care experienced individuals show every day and also honours the personal growth and transformation that their journeys have inspired (and will continue to inspire).
Read on to learn more about Victoria, her insights, and her hopes for NCLM.
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Victoria, tell me about yourself.
So, I am Victoria. I generally don’t label myself as a care leaver, but I do often say I am one when people ask me about who I am because it explains a lot about me.
I work for the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum (NLCBF, or the Forum) as the Young People’s Benchmarking Forum (YPBMF) Steering Group Representative. I started with the Forum as a YPBMF Champion – a care-experienced young person who represents their local authority and volunteers with YPBMF – whilst I was doing an apprenticeship with my local council a few years ago. I got more involved with the Forum, volunteering at events including speaking on stage.
Fast forward to a few years later, I applied for the YBPMF Steering Group Representative role, and here we are – I now bring the views of young people into the NLCBF Steering Group where we agree plans for the whole forum.
In my personal time, I like to paint. I put on music in the background and just let it take me away from anything else that I may be thinking.
Why did you want to get involved with NLCBF?
I loved the work that NLCBF was doing. Also, it seemed like it was a friendly environment. Everyone said that NLCBF is like a family. I thought that maybe it’s just something that people said but it only took a few events for me to realise that it’s actually true. After that, it wasn’t long before I felt like I was part of the family too. It’s a type of environment where everyone is there to support you, and everyone is genuinely friendly, real, and easy to connect with.
What’s been your favourite thing about working with the Forum?
There are a few things. One of them is the family aspect. Even though us as YPBMF Champions and Legends don’t see each other often, it’s like no time has passed when we meet. Everyone accepts everyone for who they are, there’s no need to wear a mask. At other places I’ve been, I often feel like I’d be judged or that I can’t be myself because of what people might think. But with NLCBF, I don’t feel like that at all. I can be me with my baggage, emotions, labels, everything and they still accept me. What I love is that this hasn’t really changed in the time that I’ve been with the Forum. It’s always been like this.
Another thing that comes to my mind is seeing the process of young people becoming YPBMF Champions and Legends. It begins with seeing a new young person attending their first event. We then get to meet them and spend the day (or a few days) with them and then maybe six months down the line, you see them having the confidence to go up on stage and share their story. I love that. It’s really touching for me because I remember the feeling and what it meant to me when I first did it, and I can see that same feeling in them or something just as special in their own way. That’s really touching to see.
Lastly, I love going to events outside of NLCBF. I love being able to represent the Forum and hear what is being talked about, share the views of other care-experienced young people. Whether it’s about corporate parents, protected characteristics, or something else. I’m there to listen and feed back to the Forum especially on behalf of people who may not be able to attend NLCBF events.
What have you personally learned from your role within the Forum?
This role has taken me to loads of different places. I’ve learned a lot more about the care system and the decision-makers behind it, and key people to talk to including MPs, ministers, and councillors.
Sitting in ministerial board meetings is not something I ever thought I would do. I thought you had to go to university, be of a certain standing, or have letters in front of your name to be in a ministerial board meeting. I feel really privileged to sit in those meetings and represent YPBMF’s views and experiences on topics like the cost of living or mental health. I get to say to these people, ‘These are the views, what are you going to do about it?’
How would you sum up the impact of YPBMF and/or NLCBF on the lives of care-experienced young people?
I would say that YPBMF coming from a collective of care-experienced young people from loads of different places around the UK is impactful in itself. We give our views and share our experiences on things that we think need to be changed and improved across the country. We want people to hear it directly from those of us with care experience. Maybe they can understand it a bit more than if a professional was explaining it.
We’re actively advocating for change for care-experienced young people through our events and projects such as In Their Own Words – a YPBMF project informed by a survey of over 200 care experienced people that sets out the priority areas that can improve their lives. All of that work has been co-produced with YPBMF; it was then taken to the Children’s Minister, leaving care managers, and MPs in Parliament. All those key asks and findings that YPBMF collected were shared with the decision-makers and something was done.
I get to go back to the young people and let them know that their words are actually making change. This is important because sometimes the young people don’t realise they are having that effect until we tell them. They think they are just sharing their stories and reminiscing on similar experiences but at the same time, they are making a huge impact, contributing towards change in policy.
Overall, even though the journey has been difficult at times, for me and for many young people, it brings meaning, importance, value, resilience, and connection. It reminds us that we’re part of something bigger, and that by sharing and doing this work, we’re improving the lives of other care-experienced young people.
So, can I ask you, what does National Care Leavers’ Month and its theme mean to you?
‘Rising As Me’ is the theme this year and this does hit home especially because of the first speech I gave with YPBMF which was about my identity and how I’ve been care-experienced. I spoke about my journey from who I was in care to who I was when I left care. Back then, I was someone who was dealing with a lot and not going down the best path. I didn’t know who I was when I was coming out of care.
I ended my speech by talking about the apprenticeship I was doing at the time. I also mentioned that I was now helping the young people in my local council who were in the position that I used to be and I was now a YPBMF Champion. My journey was hard to navigate but what I’m doing now is going down a much more positive path.
So, I think ‘Rising As Me’ is that speech. Obviously, that was years ago compared to now but overall, I think it means that I am accepting my story and I’m allowing all the hard bits and the proud bits to come together. It’s recognising how far I’ve come in my personal and professional journey, and being passionate about helping others to rise too.
I’m still trying to juggle being a care leaver and working on my own personal issues, while trying to help other care leavers. It has been really hard but I’m still doing it. Even though there might be hardships, I still keep going. I still struggle with my mental health, things like anxiety, overthinking, and self‑doubt – and balancing everything isn’t always easy. But the bigger picture, the bigger meaning and importance of being care experienced and trying to improve the system for others, means more to me personally.
What would you like to National Care Leavers Month achieve?
Obviously, it’s about raising awareness and celebrating achievements but what I hope for is that the public who still have no idea about what being care-experienced means get to know about us and to support us. I think there are lots of opportunities for everyone to help , it could be the hairdresser or barber shops on the high street offering work experience and apprenticeships, for example.
My hope is that opportunities open up for care-experienced young people. It’d be great to see people putting out their hands and saying, ‘I want to help’. Not in a way that they feel sorry for you but more like, ‘I’m touched by the whole care experience and I love what you do. Let me lend a hand’. I want it to be that sort of thing. We’re trying to get rid of stigma so I want it to be uplifting.
Also, I want ministers to really, really think about care-experienced people when they are reading a report or writing policy. They already consider children, old people, disabled people… I want the care experienced to be part of those groups.
I’m hoping that this National Care Leavers’ Month, everything that we’ve been doing in the run-up – the meetings we’ve attended and the reports and documents that we’ve been included in or contributed to – helps to make things better. Or, at least, starts the journey to get the right people round the table who can make those things better.
Lastly, I hope that the young people really do feel that they are being celebrated. I think it’s important to share the good work that we have been doing and what we have accomplished so far. It can be really easy to feel that things are not moving that much but we are doing great work and I think hats off to the care leavers and the really good staff that are there to make it happen.
Right, a silly question for you… what is your spirit animal?
Do you know what? I’m going to say a panda – they’re so playful. My friends wouldn’t say that I’m very playful because they think that I can be serious and can take a while for me to really let down my hair down, laugh, and have fun. Still, I would say that deep down inside, I am like that. So, yeah, I’d say a panda.
One more silly question because, why not? What’s your favourite season?
Winter. You know what you’re getting with winter. You’re cold; you have the comfort meals that you can make at home; you’ve got the nice heat and the blankets. I just I love it. Plus, because it’s gloomy, cloudy, and it rains, you don’t feel guilty about staying home.
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National Care Leavers’ Month has been organised by a group of charities and organisations, primarily within the Alliance for Children in Care and Care Leavers. The theme and logos have been co-produced with care-experienced young people, find out more here.
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