From the mid-1970s, a movement created by those with lived experience transformed the landscape of children’s social care and contributed to the recognition of children’s rights in the UK. However, the history of the movement has gone unrecognised and was in danger of being lost forever.
This groundbreaking three-year archival project is led by a majority care-experienced board working with Coram, the first and longest serving children’s charity in the UK. It will preserve and share the stories of the campaigning movement for future generations.
Project activities will include:
- sharing the history through interactive online content
- showing how the movement has grown and changed over time
- collecting, cataloguing and making relevant documents and artefacts available online through digitisation
- creating a library of interviews that capture the motivations, work and achievements of the people at the heart of the movement
- producing intergenerational content, including podcasts and social media, with care-experienced young people and adults
- developing educational resources, displays, activities and events
I am delighted to be working with our majority care-experienced programme board to capture and share this vital history.
Brigid Robinson MBE, Managing Director of Coram Voice
Brigid Robinson MBE, Managing Director of Coram Voice and Coram Group young people’s programmes, said: "Amplifying the voices of those that are care experienced sits at the heart of what we do, and I am delighted to be working with our majority care-experienced programme board to capture and share this vital history.
"As a care-experienced adult I know how poorly the history of the campaigning movement has been recorded, and how easily its achievements risk being forgotten. The project, Speaking for Ourselves, seeks to address this by recording and celebrating these achievements and this important social history.”
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