On the Blue Cabin blog, I explore how care-experienced young people helped shape the evaluation of Creative Life Story Work.
Exceprt:
In line with recent cries for “nothing about us without us” from the various communities of people receiving social care services and their allies, I believe social research should be done with people, rather than only about people. That’s why I was beyond elated when Ipsos MORI were invited to pitch a co-production project in partnership with Blue Cabin. This project became known as the Young Researchers Programme and ran alongside an evaluation of the Creative Life Story Work pilot we’re currently working on with Coram, on behalf of the What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care.
Part of this evaluation involves interviewing children in care who have recently participated in Creative Life Story Work, as well as their carers, social workers and others around them who are involved in their care. Creative Life Story Work is an attempt to improve the practice of Life Story Work, a therapeutic intervention that aims to enable children in care to make sense of their early childhood experiences and better understand – as well as make peace with – why they’re in care.
