I am so excited to share our news with you today! Over the past 12 months, we have been re-establishing the IFCO Youth Committee. We are connecting with our youth members, listening to their views, and helping to find ways to amplify their voices. I will take this opportunity now to thank them and our Youth member Board Director for all their work on this! There is more to share with you as the coming weeks and months unfold but right now I wanted to share with you that, after many months, and thanks to funding from Erasmus+, IFCO is partnering with National Foster Care Association Malta ( NFCAM) and Careleavers Connected in the Netherlands, to support our European based project that is co-designed and co-led by Careleavers.
The project will be called PiCK: Europe (Pride in Care-Leavers Konnected Europe). It aims to connect Careleavers from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Malta; promote their active citizenship; and empower them by creating opportunities for interactions and skills development, sharing their voices to influence positive change with youth, professionals and policymakers.
We will be holding a Q&A event on the 12th of May for anyone who wants to learn more about the project and help to complete the Expression of Interest form. In the next few days, we will also be opening our call for Expressions of Interest for Careleavers from these 3 countries to join our Advisory Group for this project. So if you know a Careleaver aged 18-30 in these countries that you think might be interested, please ask them to follow our Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook page for the next announcement.
You can register to attend the Q&A on Wednesday, May 12th at 5.30pm via Zoom by clicking here!
It is essential to the success of any society that it designs both policy and services for those that are involved in them and as IFCO celebrates its 40th birthday this year, I am proud that IFCO has stood by this principle throughout. This past year has ‘shone a light’ on many of the issues that are in our services and systems of alternative-family-based care across the world.
As we emerge from a global pandemic, it is never more important than now to be involving the voices of Careleavers, Carers, Families, Researchers, the Workforce, and Policymakers alike.
We can do this best if we connect and work together so please follow our social media channels for more ways to be involved in our ongoing work and developments.
If you represent an organisation that is interested in partnering with IFCO to develop/fund more voice-led projects on alternative-family based care please email me directly at: vice-president@ifco.info and in the meantime please share the message about PiCK: Europe and lend us your support!
Until next time.
Vice-President/Chair of the IFCO Youth Committee