In the UK today there are over 72,000 children and young people reliant on the state for their care and wellbeing, with 389,430 more needing some level of support – but their voices are rarely heard.
Georgia, a care leaver from Derbyshire, entered Voices 2017, a creative writing competition for care experienced young people run by the charity Coram Voice. Her poem ‘A New Chapter’ impressed judges and was turned into an animation. She explains the benefits of sharing her story and why voices like hers should be heard and celebrated…
Since the age of nine I’ve loved to use writing as a form of expressing myself. Whether it’s writing in my journals or writing music and lyrics, I’ve always found it a good way to draw upon my personal experiences of the care system and tell my story.
Being in care is not always what people think, there are ups and downs, and living in foster and residential care isn’t easy. But the most difficult thing is the stigma that all children in care seem to battle with, people think we’re ‘bad’ and will amount to nothing.
It’s wrong, and I am trying to prove that. I’ve now started university and I’m really trying to do something positive with my life, rather than being drawn down a negative path that some people think is expected of us. I would love my writing to be able to influence other young people in care to do the same and help encourage them to turn their lives into a positive situation, so that one day they can look back on their experiences and see how far they’ve come.
