Adoptee voices

February 27 2023

Funding awarded to Family Action for PAC-UK to support young adoptees in Yorkshire and Humber

tanya News Adoptee voices, Adopteens, Adoption, adoption support, Family Action, One Adoption, PAC-UK, The National Lottery Community Fund, Yorkshire and Humber 0

Family Action has been awarded a grant of £326,824 from the National Lottery Community Fund to expand its PAC-UK Adopteens service for adopted teenagers across Yorkshire and Humber.

Tanya Killick, PAC-UK Adopteens & Projects Practice Manager (left) and Gaiena Stead, Adopteens Project Worker (right).

PAC-UK, part of national charity Family Action, launched Adopteens in 2015. This unique and innovative service, which was initially commissioned by One Adoption, is designed and developed by adopted teenagers to reach out and connect with other adoptees.

The grant from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK, will be used to build on the already fantastic provision by extending the range and scope of events offered by Adopteens. The funding will also be used to build upon the voice and influence work, to continue to give a platform for young adoptee voices to impact change in the sector, and significantly increase service provision.

The overarching aim is for Adopteens to be working with up to 500 young adoptees in Yorkshire and Humber, by December 2025.

Tanya Killick, PAC-UK Adopteens & Projects Practice Manager, said: “Adopteens was created by young adoptees, 8 years ago, to better meet the needs of adopted young people across Yorkshire and Humber. We are delighted to have been awarded the funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, as this additional funding means that we can expand our reach and service into even more areas, and we are looking forward to being able to connect with many more young adoptees in our community who are harder to reach, especially in rural areas.”

“We have seen first-hand how essential connections like these are for young adoptees confidence and self-esteem, and how these connections help them to develop new skills, experience, and knowledge, and ultimately to help them to fulfil their potential.”

Michelle Rawlings, Head of One Adoption West Yorkshire said: “The Adopteens project has really proved to be a lifeline for many adopted young people in the Yorkshire region. We are always so impressed by the fantastic opportunities the project team offer and we have seen the impact the team has in helping the young people grow and achieve their potential. We are delighted that the team will be able to expand thanks to this additional funding and reach even more young people with their valuable work.”

Currently supporting 140 young people aged 11-17 in Yorkshire and Humber, PAC-UK’s Adopteens service offers a range of online resources, chat forums, social activity days and runs a Youth Council.

The Youth Council looks to give young adoptees a voice to influence practice and policy and to work with professionals including social workers, therapists, and education professionals to increase their understanding of challenges facing adopted young people and their families.

Young Adoptee, Paul*, said: “The funding is brilliant news for us Adopteens. We all love the group and having an opportunity to have our voices heard. Events like the One Adoption West Conference were amazing as we were able to educate and inform others of what being adopted is like, how it is different for everyone and the divergent experiences we all face. With this funding I believe I speak for all of us, we are so grateful for this as it will provide us with more amazing opportunities.”

The National Lottery Community Fund distributes money raised by National Lottery players, who raise over £30 million each week for good causes across the UK.

Joe Dobson, Head of Regional Funding for Yorkshire and Humberside at The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “We’re delighted to be funding Family Action’s PAC-UK Adopteens Plus project that has been designed by adopted teenagers to meet and connect with other adoptees. Thanks to National Lottery players, this project will support adopted young people across Yorkshire and Humber to thrive, providing information, advice and peer-support to improve their life chances.”

Young Adoptee, Jane* said: “This funding for the Adopteens is amazing. Many of the members of the group have formed such a tight friendship due to the opportunities we have received. We all work hard to educate other people about adoption and hopefully help other people to feel less alone and to understand that there are many other people in similar situations. This funding will hopefully allow us to educate more people and meet more people in our situation. Thank you so much for this funding it will help so many people.”

To find out more about Adopteens please visit www.adopteens.org.uk or email ad*******@pa****.org.

Contact details:
Email me******@fa***********.uk
Phone: 07903 074 174

Notes to Editors

About PAC-UK

PAC-UK is an Adoption Support Agency that provides specialist support to all parties affected by adoption and permanency. Our vision is that all those affected by adoption, Special Guardianship and other forms of permanent care are supported and enabled to live their lives to the full. We have built our expertise over a 36 year period, starting out as Post-Adoption Centre in 1986. In recent years we have combined with other specialist providers to produce a more robust organisation with a wider reach and a more comprehensive range of services. In December 2018, PAC-UK joined national charity, Family Action. PAC-UK was rated as ‘Outstanding’ in all areas during our most recent Ofsted inspection in December 2022. Ofsted report

Ofsted registration number: SC066981

www.pac-uk.org | www.adopteens.org.uk
twitter.com/PACUKadoption | twitter.com/AdoptedTeens_ID
www.facebook.com/PACUKAdoption
www.youtube.com/PACAdoptionSupport

About Family Action

Family Action is a national charity committed to building stronger families and brighter lives. Since the charity was founded in 1869, we have continued to help children and families overcome the challenges they face through a wide range of practical, emotional and financial support. Today we work with more than 60,000 families in over 200 community-based services, as well as supporting thousands more through our national helpline, FamilyLine, which offers free and immediate support to adult family members and national schemes like the National School Breakfast Programme.

We help families and individuals to manage their mental health and wellbeing, working with families to reduce the impact of social isolation, poverty, addiction and other significant sources of stress and pressure. We also support families affected by adoption, special guardianship, separation, special educational needs, disability, domestic violence and sexual abuse. In addition, we provide thousands of welfare and educational grants every year to people in financial crisis.

For further information, please visit our website at www.family-action.org.uk

Registered charity number: 264 713

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www.linkedin.com/company/family-action/

August 1 2022

‘Adopt a Change’ Pilot training!

tanya News, Past Events Adoptee voices, Adoption, Adoption Training, Adoption UK

Sometimes it feels like the Children in Care Council (CICC) – a place where children and young people in care can share their experiences of the care system, to help their ‘corporate parents’ get things right and look after them properly – are light years ahead of us in terms of voice and influence work, with the world of adoption playing a big game of catch up.

‘Total Respect’ training which has been designed and developed by young people in care has been around for over 15 years, with the aim of improving practice and knowledge of professionals who work with them. It also empowers young people who often have very little say over their own lives and their training has had huge success in influencing change. Professionals love to hear and learn directly from young people who can share their personal experiences first hand… and unfiltered!

Our ‘Adopt a Change’ pilot training in Leeds on 24 April 2022 was attended by 17 professionals from PAC-UK and One Adoption!

We figured our Adopteens would be brilliant at this, so PAC-UK worked closely with our Family Action fundraising team to secure funding from BBC Children in Need to develop our very own one-day training course for professionals working with adoptees.

Nine young people from our Adopteens service joined the project, which they very aptly chose to name ‘Adopt a Change’ in the hope professionals adopt a change in their own practice after attending our training.

Preparation work to develop ‘Adopt a Change’ training content started in February 2022 with a team building day at Herd Farm, which was closely followed for six group consultation sessions via Zoom. We then returned to Herd Farm for a weekend residential to really build those relationships and pull together the work we had done so far into something vaguely deliverable!

One young person shared:

“The most enjoyable bit for me was that I have made unexpected friends with new people who turn out to be a lot like me.”

On 24 April 2022 we held our first ‘Adopt a Change’ pilot training session in Leeds, We wanted to test the waters of the workshops the young people had designed and hoped to gain some valuable feedback to further shape the training – ensuring both their needs and professionals needs were met.

Our audience consisted of 17 professionals from PAC-UK and One Adoption. There was a great mixture of managers (two had travelled up from London specifically to attend!), therapists, counsellors, social workers and support service staff, who all experienced a morning full of surprises.

Five incredible young people led the training which consisted of three themed workshops, that were all interlinked:

The first workshop looked at a tool that could be used by professionals to help build relationships with young people in a safe and gentle way
The second workshop looked at several statements the young people either have had said to them or they feel about themselves – we asked participants to feedback their views on these statements to look at the assumptions and views (sometimes unconscious biases) we can all hold
The third and most impactful workshop was an immersive exercise around the school experience for our young people, which was both hilarious and very challenging

We hadn’t rehearsed the whole event, so it was fresh and exciting and we had no idea how it would pan out, but we had a strong underlying faith in our young people and in the process and we were absolutely right to, because they all smashed it out of the park!

Their confidence grew as the morning went on, some young people spontaneously went to talk to attendees and many shared experiences and thoughts that were not planned but were very poignant and helpful. Most of all they supported each other and that consideration and respect shone through.

“It was nice to see that so many people attended and it was interesting how the workers were absorbing information like sponges, we could see this in their eyes and that was reassuring to see.”

We were thrilled with the Survey Monkey feedback we received from attendees, below are just a few examples:

“Excellent presentation. So well thought through it was hard to believe they are all still of school age. Their skills and abilities in planning and delivering training at this level was astounding.”

“I am so looking forward to seeing the next stages of this training develop, as if this is a shape of what is to come this is the most exciting training that I’ve been privy to in years.”

‘It was excellent from start to finish and the training was designed not just to give you a narrative experience, it immersed you brilliantly and cleverly into what the world of an adopted young person might feel like. This is what will bring much needed change for professionals when working with adopted and care experienced young people.”

“The young people did exceptionally well to deliver this pilot training and despite being nervous they conducted themselves in a manner that I can commend, they were supportive of each other and this was humbling to see.”

It was a really enjoyable and exhausting day and we learnt so much from it. Young people shared how much of a confidence boost it has been and also how they feel they might be a step closer to ‘productive and useful change’.

Next on the agenda is to look at what we’ve learnt, tweak our existing workshops and design the second half of the training. We can share that we have worked with brilliant theatre maker, performer and facilitator, Natalie Belli ngham who has helped bring out their inner teachers and will involve some brilliant acting from the group (accents and all).

Tanya Killick & Adopteens | May 2022