Care-experienced forum!

JustV

Recently, a suggestion was made for a new forum - conversations around life in the care system.

We realised quickly that there would be a demand for an area like this, particularly if it helped bring care-experienced young people to the community who might be struggling to find support elsewhere.

Staff have been chatting with some of our care-experienced folks on the community to put together a plan of what that could look like. The next step in this process is to share the idea with the wider community (you), get some feedback and hear what you think, then use that to take us over the finish line.

So, what's the plan?

What will the forum be for?

The forum will be for threads about life in the care system.

It's worth noting that discussion of life-events that might lead to someone being in care will likely be better suited to other forums. For example, discussions of family abuse will still go in Sex & Relationships.

Where will the forum be?

It will be a full forum (rather than a subforum) in Support Topics.

There was a question over whether a subforum would be better, but in the end it was decided that a full forum makes more sense. It helps provide a clear and visible home for these discussions, and discussions around the care system don't quite fit well enough into other forums for a subforum to make sense.

What will be in it?

Some of the brains behind this suggestion will be helping put together some initial posts for the forum, including pinned informational posts about the care system and what support is available.

We'll also be working on an 'about this forum' post.

What will the forum be called?

Undecided! This is a key thing we need your help with. Suggestions so far have included:

• Care Experienced Zone
• Care Experience & Living Away From Home
• Life In Care

These are just starting points. With naming things, more people and more suggestions are always better, so we'd love to hear your thoughts on this. The name should roughly be the length of other forum names (though this isn't too strict), and it should be easy to tell what the forum is for.

When will we see the new forum?

Whenever we have a final plan. We'll probably wait a couple of weeks to gather feedback and suggestions in this thread, then create the new forum once we have a final plan y'all approve of.

----

So, we'd love to hear what you think!

What do you think about the plan overall?

Do you have any questions, suggestions or feedback?

Any forum name suggestions?

Also, for those who helped brainstorm this: if I've missed anything, feel free to chip in! Thanks to @Anch0r33, @Liam and @Past User for laying the groundwork and pitching the initial ideas.

Former Member

Super excited to have this started and looking forward to seeing it progress! 

Dancer

1. I think that the plan sounds like a great idea especially with dedicating a full forum to it as there are a wide spectrum of topics related to life in care such as finance, care leavers, mental health, past experiences etc.

2. Not right now but I will comment later if anything pops up in my mind.

3. Care Experienced Zone sounds like an amazing idea because it is inclusive of those who have been in any form of care or who have left the care system for any reason such as adoption, reunion or aging out of the system. I also feel like it is a great title to remember and is catchy.

Past User

This is awesome. I quite like Care Experienced Zone too

Former Member

Liam said:

This is awesome. I quite like Care Experienced Zone too

I agree, I'm a fan of Care Experienced Zone

Former Member

Just an idea @Mike, how about Care Experienced Hangout? It sounds more like a place where you can meet others who have care experiences and a place to relate to other more than 'zone'. To me 'zone' makes it feel like you can only go in there if you have experience but there may be people who just want to learn some more about it or people who perhaps may not already be experienced in it but they're about to be  

JustV

Thanks everyone!

Glad to hear the idea is popular so far. More opinions the better, so keep 'em coming.

Name-wise, it sounds like we're leaning towards Care Experienced Zone or Care Experienced Hangout. You made a good point about the connotations of 'zone' @Eleanor.   

Again these ideas are just starting points, so feel free to think outside of the current suggestions if you can see a better angle. Next week, we'll whack up a poll to get a clear favourite.

Former Member

Thank you Mike. I like Care Experienced Hangout or Zone, sounds cool! Thank you to everyone and yourself, @Mike for making this all possible.

JustV

Past User said:

Thank you Mike. I like Care Experienced Hangout or Zone, sounds cool! Thank you to everyone and yourself, @Mike for making this all possible.

Aw thanks @Past User. At the end of the day, we work to serve you guys. And honestly, you lot did all the hard work on this one!

The name poll is up! https://community.themix.org.uk/discussion/3597602/care-experienced-forum-name-vote/p1?new=1