Care Leaver Forum
The Care Leaver Forum is a place for care experienced people from Lancashire aged 17 to 24 (up to your 25th birthday).
Get involved
There are different options for how you can get involved with the forum.
You can choose to:
- come and meet us in person at our groups
- be invited to one-off events or activities near where you live
- be a digital member and keep in touch with us through email or messaging
Or you may not want to be a member at all just now.
You can choose more than one option and you can change your mind if you want to.
To let us know how you'd like to be involved, complete the short form and we'll be in touch with you:
Let us know how you'd like to get involved
Meetings
Meetings are usually fortnightly at:
- Whitecross Neighbourhood Centre, Lancaster (Thursdays 1pm to 4pm)
- County Hall Meeting Point, Preston (Wednesdays 5.30pm to 7.30pm)
- The Zone, Burnley (Thursdays 1pm to 4pm)
Contact us to check the date and time before attending.
Contact
Contact Adam to find out more and join us.
Email: cypparticipationteam@lancashire.gov.uk
Tel: 07977 273 904
Why get involved with the Care Leaver Forum?
By getting involved with the forum you can:
- build your confidence and self-esteem
- make new friends and meet different people
- be part of making positive changes for you and others
- develop skills that will help you in the future - like problem solving, communication and planning
- learn about opportunities for your future
Depending on how far you want to get involved in the Care Leaver Forum, you can:
- get certificates to show what you have been part of
- go on trips and residentials
- sometimes receive vouchers and payment for your time
We want to make sure that your experience with the Care Leaver Forum is valuable now and for your future.
Why we have the Care Leaver Forum
We know that working with you and listening to you helps make our services work better and make positive changes.
Expand the boxes below to find out more about what we do and why:
These are some of the activities you could take part in as a member of the Care Leavers Forum:
- join face-to-face and online sessions, to build on your confidence, communication, presentation and public speaking skills
- train in recruitment and selection to carry out interviews for job roles within Lancashire County Council such as social workers
- take part in Lancashire County Council’s Corporate Parenting Board to raise issues that are important to children in care and care leavers
- organise and attend the PROUD Awards and Care Leavers week
- plan and run yearly participation conferences
- create informative videos and resources for social care teams, and other care experienced children and young people, fostering residential and adoption services and beyond
- become a Young Advisor and feedback to children’s homes and other services for positive change
- take part in other activities such as life skills, cooking, art and crafts
The Care Leaver Forum is a participation group. Participation is a name often used for getting involved. It means:
- taking part
- expressing yourself in decisions that affect you
- being listened to, and understood
- your view is taken into account
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child - Article 12 states that every young person has the right to express their views, feelings and wishes in all matters affecting them and to have their views considered and taken seriously.
This might mean you are involved in your pathway plan or you might attend meetings about your care and future.
But the Care Leaver Forum is about coming together with other young adults who have a similar experience to you to support changes on a bigger scale.
We benefit from your involvement too.
By listening to the Care Leaver Forum we can:
- create services that are better at meeting your needs
- make sure our services are doing their best to support you and other young adults
It makes us:
- do what we say we will
- be clear about what can and cannot change
- challenge ourselves to make how we work more inclusive of all backgrounds
More information and advice
- Care leavers local offer information about support in Lancashire for care leavers aged 16-25.
- The FYP on Instagram (@the_fyp_Lancashire) for care experienced young people in Lancashire to keep up to date with news, events and entitlements – and a way to interact if you wish!
Share:
In this section
- Being in our care and leaving care
- Being in Care - complaints
- Corporate Parenting Board – parental responsibility for you
- Education - young people in care
- Employment support - young people in care and care leavers
- LINX - Children in Care Council
- Long term savings - Junior ISA
- Our promises to children in care and care leavers
