GHWY runs social media campaign for Care Experienced History Month
Authors who have experience of care are being celebrated by Go Higher West Yorkshire (GHWY) as part of a social media campaign to mark Care Experienced History Month (CEHM).
CEHM, which falls in April every year, looks back at the stories of the care-experienced community to see what can be learnt from the past as well as sharing stories of individuals with care experience. It culminates in an International Day of Remembrance on 30 April.
GHWY participation
Since 2022, GHWY has supported CEHM with a campaign that celebrates a different annual theme. This year, the theme is famous authors who have experience of care. These include Edgar Allen Poe, best known for supernatural horror story ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’, and Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes.
The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness of different types of care and to spotlight individuals with care experience. Many care-experienced young people feel alone and think their care background is something to hide. By highlighting role models, we hope that people will realise they are not the first/only ones who have been in care.
The types of care are kinship care, looked after, foster care, adoption, residential care, and secure care. GHWY tends to focus on the first four of these in its work.
Find out more about GHWY’s work with care-experienced individuals.
If you would like to know more about GHWY’s work supporting those with care experience, please contact Dominic House, Care to Go Higher Delivery Officer, at D.House@leeds.ac.uk
A history of CEHM
CEHM was successfully piloted in 2020 by Who Cares? Scotland, which is an independent entity that works to ensure it represents care-experienced individuals through advocacy and education among other things. The campaign was officially launched in 2021.
A key element of CEHM’s success is its partnership work with organisations such as Become Charity to spread the word. This approach has resulted in CEHM being celebrated globally.
How to get involved
Organisations can get involved in CEHM by organising in-person, online or hybrid events. They can also create their own social media posts and/or share the content of others. The key hashtags are #CareExperiencedHistoryMonth and/or #CEHM.
GHWY’s campaign will be run on its Twitter/X, Facebook and Instagram channels.
