Lives in Care: Stories of Resilience
Mindhouse Productions, the makers of the award-winning radio series and podcast Grounded With Louis Theroux, is teaming up with BBC Radio 4 and our Tony Simpson to explore life in the British care system.
Interview
How Being Mentored Helped to Reduce Loneliness During Covid
For this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week the topic is loneliness. With 1 in 5 of us feeling lonely at work and with the pressures of Covid-19 restricting social connection, read how one of our care-experienced young people benefited from having mentor through that time.
Drive Forward with Mentoring. The benefits of building trusted relationships
Introduced in 2015, our mentoring scheme has since developed into a comprehensive programme encompassing bespoke training for professional mentors, continuous support for both mentors and mentees, and additional professional development opportunities for care-experienced young people. What began as a small pilot with only a handful of participants, is now an integral part of the Drive Forward approach to enable care-experienced youth in London to achieve their full potential through sustainable and fulfilling employment.
We asked one of our very first participants, Sally, about the benefits that she has experienced from building and maintaining a trusted and consistent mentoring relationship.
Global day of (corporate) parents
Parenting is probably the most demanding and critical job in the world. Taking responsibility for a child, for children; caring for them, nurturing them, looking after their every need over years and years, takes patience, love, and courage. The Global Day of Parents emphasises this pivotal role families play in the protection and development of children all around the world. It celebrates their selfless commitment and efforts, and highlights the great value they bring to society every single day.
Deaf and in Care. Insights, experiences and advice
Deafness is something that is not talked about a lot, especially not in the context of the care system; the support available in residential homes or foster families. To learn more about the issue and how it impacts on care-experienced young people’s lives, we took the opportunity to speak to Linn, a care-experienced young person from London.
Linn and I have been working together on Drive Forward Foundation’s Breakthrough Programme, an initiative aimed at young people in care with the aim of enabling them to progress personally and professionally as they prepare for adulthood.
Remembering Stephen Lawrence: Interview with Bebert Longi
On 22 April 1993, the country was shocked by the murder of 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence in an unprovoked, racist attack. The subsequent investigation, and public enquiry highlighted the structural and systemic racism across the country.
Here at Drive Forward we would like to honour this year’s Stephen Lawrence Day by highlighting how having a supportive network, opportunity to grow and develop can provide lifelong, blended learning and development opportunities for care experienced young professionals.
We interviewed Drive Forward young person Bebert Longi about how he overcomes challenges and what he would like to ask Stephen Lawrence if he had the chance to speak with him.
