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Actors Sophie Willan ​ ​ Sophie Willan was born 1987 and is a British actress and comedian. She grew up in Bolton, and spent time in care as a child as her mother was a heroin addict. In 2016 she took her debut stand up show On Record, based on her experiences of growing up in and out of the care system, to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. A total sell out run and phenomenal critical acclaim followed, with a smash hit nationwide tour in 2017 and a commission to adapt the show into a BBC Radio 4 series. Sophie is a Care Leaver, who’s personal experiences are part of her life’s mission; to empower, represent and advocate for care experienced young people and marginalised children and adults. In 2015, Sophie founded non-profit organisation, Stories Of Care; a dynamic and rebellious writing and outreach organisation, that work exclusively with exceptional new writers, from diverse backgrounds. They offer long-term developmental support to their participants so that they can become creative leaders and make personal and political work that smashes through the glass ceilings across Theatre, Radio, Stand-Up, Television and Literature. As an Executive Producer on her BBC Two sitcom, Alma’s Not Normal, Sophie has also instigated a paid training programme for young people from low income and Care Experienced backgrounds on the production. External Website

Academic Articles A childhood on paper Managing access to child care files by post-care adults Jim Goddard 2008 A childhood on paper Managing access to child care files by post-care adults. Jim Goddard, Julia Feast & Derek Kirton: For people who have spent part or all of their childhoods in care, access to information about family history and events that have happened during their childhood can offer significant benefits. It can provide a chronological history, explain the reasons for coming into care and help to build a fuller sense of the enquirer’s current identity. While the principle of providing such information has long been recognised, those formerly in care have faced numerous challenges in gaining access to their records. If you can't get access to this article, email: careexpereinceandculture@gmail.com and we'll pass on your request to Jim Goddard, Chair of The Care Leavers' Association. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Daffodils - Audiobook Louise Beech 2022 Content warning: suicide 2019. Dawn. The River Humber. A misty February walk. Surprise early daffodils. A picture taken. Then forgotten. Because five hours later, my world shattered. My mother jumped off the Humber Bridge. Had those yellow flowers not delayed me, I might have been there. Could I have stopped her? In the aftermath of this violent act, I turned to my writing, to my beloved siblings, to our only uncle. I was forced to look at events that led to this suicide attempt. At relationships wrecked by alcoholism. At chronic depression. At our care records. At my childhood. At my mother. At buried trauma never fully explored before. At myself.... When I much later found the picture of those surprise daffodils, I knew it was time to write about that day. I began typing the story that inspired so many of my fictional characters, that shaped the testing things they endured. My own story. External Website

Actors Lena Horne (actor) ​ ​ Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was born in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn an American singer, dancer, actress, and civil rights activist. Horne was raised mainly by her grandparents, Cora Calhoun and Edwin Horne. Her father, Edwin Fletcher "Teddy" Horne Jr. (1893–1970), left the family when she was 3 years old and moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her mother, Edna Louise Scottron (1894–1976), was the granddaughter of inventor Samuel R. Scottron. She was an actress with a black theatre troupe and travelled extensively. Horne's career spanned over 70 years, appearing in film, television, and theatre. She belonged to the upper stratum of middle-class, well-educated black people. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir A Boy Called Graham Graham Gaskin with James MacVeigh 2005 Graham Gaskin's story is the kind of story that will touch the reader deeply. It is a story of suffering, neglect and abuse on many levels. When Graham was only nine months old, his mother committed suicide by throwing herself from the Wallasey ferry. This formative loss triggered the start of a lifetime of pain for Graham, both boy and man. For most of his life he was passed from children's home, to foster family, to institution, often being mistreated by those in authority. As he came of age, Graham had nowhere to turn but to a life on the streets, eventually living by his wits around the world. This is the controversial story of a forgotten child who, through no fault of his own, was left to fight his own battles. External Website

Academic Articles Louis Armstrong’s “Karnofsky Document”: The Reaffirmation of Social Death and the Afterlife of Emotional Labor Dalton Jones 2015 This essay examines a controversial memoir Louis Armstrong wrote on his deathbed in New York’s Beth Israel Hospital. I argue that critics have made the mistake of treating each of the narrative’s elements as discrete units. In doing so they have protected the musician’s legacy by detouring around many of the challenges the document poses to some deeply cherished ideas about Armstrong’s life and the significance of his art. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness, to The Blind Side, and Beyond Michael Oher 2012 The football star made famous in the hit film (and book) The Blind Side reflects on how far he has come from the circumstances of his youth. ooking back on how he went from being a homeless child in Memphis to playing in the NFL, Michael talks about the goals he had to break out of the cycle of poverty, addiction, and hopelessness that trapped his family. Eventually he grasped onto football as his ticket out and worked hard to make his dream into a reality. With his adoptive family, the Touhys, and other influential people in mind, he describes the absolute necessity of seeking out positive role models and good friends who share the same values to achieve one's dreams. External Website

Actors Noel Tovey ​ ​ Aboriginal Australian actor, dancer, singer, director, choreographer and writer, Noel Tovey (b. 1934), was in a children’s home and foster care as a child. Noel was the 3rd of 5 children born into an impoverished family living in the inner-city suburb of Carlton, Melbourne. His mother, Winifred Ann Tovey, was Aboriginal and his father, Frederick Morton, was of African-Canadian-French-Creole heritage. When Noel was 6, their parents abandoned their children and the Welfare Authorities put them into the Royal Park Depot, and from there Noel was taken in by Arthur Challenger and his mother, who lived in Burren Junction, more than 600km north-west of Sydney. n 1954 Noel danced in Paint Your Wagon, which toured in Adelaide and Sydney. Later, Noel Tovey trained at the national Theatre Ballet School. Then in 1961, he was in London working as the principal dancer for the Sadler’s Wells Company. He also made his debut as a singer and choreographer in London, directing and choreographing numerous productions across Europe. While in London, Noel and his partner set up what became one of the top galleries in London, L’Odeon. Noel didn’t return to Australian until 1990. He set up a performing arts course and continued his work as a director. Little Black Bastard, Noel Tovel’s autobiography, was published in 2004 to critical acclaim. The one man play based on the book was also well received in Australia, at the Edinburgh Festival in 2010 and the London Origins Festival in 2011. Noel Tovey has served on the NSW Arts Council, the 2000 Olympic Arts Festival and the AIDS Trust of Australia, amongst others. He set up the Novel Tovey Scholarship Fund to assist those from disadvantaged backgrounds to attend the Flying Fruit Fly Circus, a leading youth arts company. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou 1993 This is Maya Angelou's autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings published 1969 by Random House. The book follows Marguerite's (called "My" or "Maya" by her brother) life from the age of three to seventeen and the struggles she faces – particularly with racism – in the Southern United States. Abandoned by their parents, Maya and her older brother Bailey are sent to live with their paternal grandmother (Momma) and disabled uncle (Uncle Willie) in Stamps, Arkansas. Maya and Bailey are haunted by their parents' abandonment throughout the book – they travel alone and are labeled like baggage. This is the first of her autobiographical books. Angelou structures her book so that it presents a series of lessons about how to resist racism and oppression. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir A Proud & Strong Survivor Priscilla Taylor 2011 Recipes for Survival: Stories of Hope and Healing by Survivors of the State ‘Care’ System in Australia is a collection of stories by those who have grown up in care in Australia during the 20th century and is therefore contribution to a growing body of literature on the experiences of the Forgotten Australians. External Website

Artists Yusuf P McCormack ​ ​ Yusuf Paul McCormack (1963-2021) was an Artist, Poet, Writer/Author and Trainer, based in Rugby, Warwickshire. He took early retirement from the civil service in 2015 and wrote his first verse in November of that year. It was an epiphany moment and, consumed, Yusuf wrote solidly for the next 12 months about his childhood growing up in children's institutions. In December 2016 he began to translate his written work on to canvas, where he attempted to explore the emotions that he was unable to voice as a child. His work explores the world he experienced, felt and witnessed as a child who was illegitimate, mixed raced and rejected. Yusuf’s art was his intuitive way of working using memory and imagination as a way to develop his own style. He used his combined experiences as an artist, a child of the state, to inform those who genuinely want to improve and sustain better outcomes for those who never chose their start in life. External Website

Actors Chad Coleman ​ ​ Chad L. Coleman (born September 6, 1974) is an American actor. He grew up in foster care and became known by portraying Dennis "Cutty" Wise on the HBO crime drama series The Wire (2004–2008), voicing Coach in the video game Left 4 Dead 2, and portraying Tyreese Williams on the AMC post-apocalyptic horror series The Walking Dead (2012–2015). He currently stars in the science fiction series The Expanse as Fred Johnson, a.k.a. "the Butcher of Anderson Station", and starred in the History Channel's 2016 re-imagining of the miniseries Roots. He currently plays a recurring role as the alien Klyden, on the Fox series The Orville. External Website

Actors Jack Charles ​ ​ Jack Charles (1943-2022) was an Australian actor, musician, potter, and Aboriginal elder. A member of the Stolen Generation, Jack was removed from his mother as a baby, sexually abused in Box Hill, and rejected by his foster mother when he told her he had made contact with Aboriginal family members. As a consequence of his childhood suffering, Jack was a drug addict for decades, often financing his habit through petty theft. He's been imprisoned something like 22 times. His screen credits include the landmark Australian film The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978), Bedevil (1993), Blackfellas (1993), Tom White (2004) and Pan (2015), among others. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir How the Light Gets In: Writing as Spiritual Practice Pat Schneider 2013 Schneider's book is distinct from the many others in the popular spirituality and creative writing genre by virtue of its approach, using one's lived experience--including the experience of writing and being in an orphanage as a child-as a springboard for expressing the often ineffable events that define everyday life. Her belief is that writing about one's own life leads to greater consciousness, satisfaction, and wisdom. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Cloudy Wishes Amanda Gargula 2011 Recipes for Survival: Stories of Hope and Healing by Survivors of the State ‘Care’ System in Australia is a collection of stories by those who have grown up in care in Australia during the 20th century and is therefore contribution to a growing body of literature on the experiences of the Forgotten Australians. External Website

Actors Aaron Pedersen ​ ​ Aaron Pedersen (born 24 November 1970) is an Australian television and film actor of Arrernte and Arabana Australian Aboriginal descent. Aaron and his seven siblings were in and out of foster care in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory as children. Aaron left Alice Springs for Melbourne as a young man after he was accepted to intern at the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC). Pedersen’s acting career began when he starred in Heartland (1994). The following year he co-hosted game show Gladiators Australia and performed the role of Vince Cellini in Wildside in 1997. Aaron Pedersen has played a number of characters in popular Australian television series, including Detective Senior Constable Michael Reilly in Water Rats (1996-2001), Detective Senior Constable Duncan Freeman in City Homicide (2007-2012), Cam Delray in the Jack Irish series (2016-2021), and Detective Jay Swan in Mystery Road (2018, 2020). Aaron is the primary carer for his younger brother, Vincent, who has cerebral palsy. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Better Off in a Home Bill Smith 1982 In this book, Bill Smith tells about his early life in Melbourne and then in Kildonan, a children's home also in Melbourne. Bill's father took him to the home when he was 6. External Website

Actors Freddie Bartholomew ​ ​ American child actor, Freddie Bartholomew (1924-1992) was born in Middlesex, London. By the age of 3, he was living with his paternal grandparents and primarily being cared for by his Aunt Cissie. Aunt Cissie took Freddie to Hollywood when the boy was 10. He became an overnight sensation playing the title role in David Copperfield (1934). His popularity increased with other films such as Swiss Family Robinson (1940) and Tom Brown’s School Days (1940). At one point, he was – after Shirley Temple – the highest paid child star in Hollywood. During the 1950s, Freddie Bartholomew moved to New York and worked in advertising. External Website

Actors Samantha Morton ​ ​ Samantha Jane Morton (born 13 May 1977) is an English actress and director. She was in residential and foster care as a child and was a member of the Central Junior Television Workshop in her native Nottingham, and later began her career in British television in 1991. She guest-starred in Soldier Soldier and Cracker and had a bigger role in the ITV series Band of Gold. Samantha Morton has received numerous accolades for her work, including a British Academy Television Award, a British Independent Film Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a British Academy Film Award. She made the transition to film with lead roles in the dramas Emma (1996), Jane Eyre (1997). For her role in Longford, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. Morton made her directorial debut with the television film The Unloved (2009), which won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Single Drama. External Website

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