You can now get involved in the Caring Communities project by recording your oral history!
Do you, or does a family member, have experience of being cared for in any of the following:
a residential children’s home;
foster care;
adoption;
kinship care;
special guardianship care?
Are you/have you been a care professional (e.g. social worker)?
Are you/have you been a carer?
The project team has begun to carry out oral history interviews with people who have experienced of -out-of-home care (children’s residential homes, foster care, special guardianship care, kinship care, and adoption). We are also interviewing the descendants and family members of people with experienced of care, and care practitioners/professionals, including social workers and carers.
These oral histories aim to build a detailed picture of the history of children’s care in Britain across the 20th and 21st centuries, interviewing to prioritise the voices and experiences of people with connections to care. It aims to develop knowledge about the world of care over time, and highlight the connections between care practices and experiences in the past and present. The team will use this historical knowledge to help shape new thinking for the benefit of policy, practice and carers about what care should look like and how it can best meet the needs of children and young people in the future.
The history of care is an essential part of Britain’s history, and recording these memories will ensure that the experiences of people with direct connections to and experiences of care are central to and visible within that story.
If you have experience of connections to care, and you are interested in learning more about the oral history process, please do get in touch with us (Claudia Soares and Kate Wilson) by emailing:
caring.communities@newcastle.ac.uk