At Leicestershire Cares, we are committed to reflecting on our experience and capturing learning to improve our practice. We also very much believe that the voice and lived experience of the people we work with should shape and drive our planning and delivery as well as being fed into relevant local and national policy practice debates.
Over the last year we have been proactive in producing articles and reflections on our work and this has led to staff and young people increasingly sharing our learning with a wide range of key local and national staff and organisations. Some examples of this include:
- Meeting with Rt Hon Priti Patel Secretary of State to discuss our work with young offenders.
- Working in partnership with De Montfort university to run a series of #BBBYouthWelfare webinars almost 1000 people have attended the first 8.
- Care experienced young people sharing their ideas and experiences at a wide range of forums as well as making their own podcast and producing a book on their heritage that has gone global.
- Being active player in local Covid 19 and future of the voluntary sector forums.
- Having articles on our work shared in a range of publications and websites such as Children and Young People Now, RSA, Compass, Vulnerability 360 and the Howard league.
- Sharing our experience of working creatively through lockdown at the Home office national VRN conference.
- Sharing our experience of brokering community and business partnerships with the DCMS and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
If we want to make lasting sustainable change then we need to share our place based practice learning with policy makers and decision makers and this is always more effective when it is delivered by the young people and communities we work with
Kieran Breen CEO Leicestershire Cares
Some examples of our reflections and sharing:
https://www.leicestershirecares.co.uk/about-charity/news-events/home-secretary-pops/
https://www.leicestershirecares.co.uk/about-charity/news-events/bridging-digital-divide/
https://www.leicestershirecares.co.uk/about-charity/news-events/responsible-business/
https://www.leicestershirecares.co.uk/about-charity/news-events/life-under-local-lockdown/