What's happening to me?
The concept for What's Happening To Me? came from members of the Southend Fostering Community and was born out of their concern that young people are often taken into the Care System with very little notice and with even less information about what is happening to them and what's going to happen to them in the future.
From this idea, a co-production between the Southend Fostering Community and local not-for-profit company Blade Education has been produced and a Steering Group built. The Steering Group consisted of Foster Carers, Social Workers, children in care, and adults previously in care - and representatives from Blade Education to provide expertise on the production of media to get the project message across to the target audience of young people between the ages of 12 to 16 who have been taken into care and are either with an Emergency Foster Placement, or their first permanent Foster Family.
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WHTM? aims to provide information that has been produced by the Fostering Community and led by experiences of young people who are either still in care or have recently left the system. It is vital that their voice is heard because they have unique insight but also because it means that we are all learning from their experience.
The initial funding to build the WHTM? The pilot model came from the work of not-for-profit partner Blade Education, who then sought funding from the National Lottery Fund via their Awards for All Fund.
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