International Three Day Conference for Care Leavers
From the 10th to the 12th November 2019, I had the opportunity to attend a three-day conference for care leavers hosted by the University of Hildesheim in Germany. I was one of the three young people selected from over 60 nationally by the Young People’s Benchmarking Forum (YPBMF) to represent care leavers in the UK, at this EU wide conference on higher education. The experience was very rewarding and I had left Germany with feelings of enjoyment but also of insight and solidarity. The worker who had accompanied us, Nat O Brien, one of the Senior Project Coordinators of the benchmarking forum, was very helpful in guiding the weekend’s programme of events and ensuring that I and the other two young people in our group reached the locations at the required times. The first day was an informal get to know each other to which I had the pleasure of meeting young people who had arrived from many countries across Europe including Spain, Poland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Germany, and the two other UK participants. We got the chance to interact with each other through a series of fun icebreakers and games before the actual first day of the conference. With it being my first trip to Germany, it was also the day where I would explore the small university city of Hildesheim and visit its key historical sites.
For the following day, each country was asked to prepare a short presentation on the support given to care leavers going to university by their local authorities. It was during the preparation for this presentation that I was able to learn about the differences in support not only in Europe but also between different regions in the UK. The other two young people in my group came from Leicester and Walsall whilst I came representing my local authority, Bromley. There was a common consensus amongst our UK group of each of our local authorities providing a Personal Advisor, a care leaver’s bursary, and a setting home allowance to facilitate this transition. However, the financial package would vary amongst the group even much more with the other countries.
During the exchange of perspectives part of the conference, every country was split in half and paired with members of other countries to begin a discussion on our personal experiences when entering University. The discussion provoked many emotional responses as people shared some disheartening stories of the lack of support and guidance given to them and how they struggled with this process. I was surprised to discover that despite how economically stable countries such as Germany and Spain are, there are still many care leavers who face serious financial and emotional difficulties when beginning this important stage of their lives. The bravery of these young people to share their stories, their resilience and dedication to strive for a better future against all odds is something that deeply resonated with me throughout the trip and still does today.
The rest of the conference was followed by further discussion with all the groups, sharing the similarities and differences between different countries and local authorities. I had learned so much from the contributions of the groups which all indicted that our system in the UK seemed to be leading in terms of the quality of support and its practice. It is, however, important to consider the differences in the educational systems of these respective countries with some countries having no tuition fees and others whilst still having fees, they were significantly lower than the UK. We ended the day with dinner at an Italian cuisine so we could relax and wind down from a long and eventful day! The last day of the conference involved several groups participating in a lecture at the University on care practices. Although unable to attend the lecture due to travel arrangements, I helped other groups to design fun interactive activities that would be used to engage students.
Overall, the experience was unforgettable and I have made networks and gained new European friends who I remain in contact with. It has helped me to see the bigger picture in life and motivated me to benefit from the support that I currently have. I wish the conference was longer and I would encourage future events as such for other care leavers to share experiences and ideas with people who have gone through similar circumstances as themselves. This in all will enable them to use new-found knowledge to drive positive change to their own communities, and if not, why not to their own regional and national governments?
Written by Bebert