On Wednesday 16 February, the Life Changes Trust hosted ‘All Good Things… Leave A Legacy’, a webinar celebrating and reflecting on the work and achievements of the Trust’s Young People with Care Experience programme.
Over the years, the Life Changes Trust has built solid foundations to support young people with care experience to flourish, to become advocates and activists, to have their voices heard, and to play a primary role in improving the future for other young people, for generations to come. Alongside those young people have been individuals and organisations who have supported and walked beside them, encouraged them, listened to them and ensured they had agency to make positive change.
The purpose of this webinar was to hear from some of those young people and projects about their journey, and to look to the future and the legacy of the Life Changes Trust.
We started the webinar with ‘Looking Back & Looking Forward’. Former Scotland Director of the National Lottery Community Fund Jackie Killeen spoke with Lydia Banks, who is part of the Advisory Group for the Young People with Care Experience Programme, about how – and why – it all began, as well as what comes next.
We then explored the key themes central to the Young People with Care Experience programme’s work, with a closer look at the learning we have gathered over the years, and at the legacy projects which will further this learning.
Co-production and investing in young people:
Catriona Kelly, Senior Evidence and Influencing Officer at the Trust, spoke about how the voice of lived experience is the key to transformational change and how this commitment led us to establishing the Trust’s Advisory Group. This was beautifully illustrated with a clip of the Advisory Group’s film ‘Side by Side’ about the Group’s My Choice My Future initiative.
The National Leadership Network, one of the Trust’s legacy partners, is another fantastic example of co-production done well. Lisa O’Leary and Gary Brown, who both head the Network, spoke about how they have been working closely with young people to develop their strategic aims and gather their thoughts on the direction of the Network for the future. They were joined by Renee Bertrum, one of the care experienced grant assessors, to chat candidly about her journey with the National Leadership Network and her role in choosing the partners who will host the Network. Partners who were then announced live during the event!
Creativity and rights-based approaches:
Mhairi Reid, Evidence and Influencing Coordinator at the Trust, spoke about creativity, and rights-based approaches, both central to the work of the Trust over the years. A short film took us back to the Voice & Vision festival, a three-day event which showcased the impact that creative projects can have on young people with care experience, and showed examples of amazing creative works, including a wonderful poem from our publication ‘Here I Stand’.
We then looked to the future with Funding Manager Emma Hutchison and Andy Nixseaman from Moniack Mhor, who spoke about the ‘Creativity and Care’ legacy funding and how the project will look like.
Pursuing equality and inclusion:
Celeste Berteau, Evidence and Influencing Coordinator for the YPCE programme, told us more about how the Trust endeavours to pursue equality and inclusion, making sure that people at risk of being silenced have the same rights as other young people, including the right to have their voices heard and to be central in making decisions about their own lives. This was illustrated by a short film in which Ruth Harvey from Aberlour talked about their Rights and Participation project, with reflections from Robert, one of the young people involved in the project.
Hilary Phillips from Youth Link Scotland and Kerry Reilly from YMCA Scotland then talked about the Digital Skills legacy project, and their aspirations for the future.
Relationship-based practice:
The webinar ended with a closer look at relationship-based practice, first with a short film that highlighted the impact of this approach on young people with care experience. We heard from some young people themselves, as well as from Aberlour’s Love Inc. project.
Carole Patrick, Joint CEO of the Trust and Director of Evidence and Influencing for the YPCE programme, then eloquently reflected on this approach. “The single most important thing we did…was prioritise relationships.” She emphasised how critical it is to share power and learn to ‘get out of the way.’
The webinar ended with a short film looking back at some of our highlights working at the Life Changes Trust, and the incredible individuals and projects who have walked alongside us.
A big thank you to out fantastic chair Jimmy Paul, and to everyone who took part in this event.
