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Radio & Podcast The sisters reuniting separated siblings at camp BBC Outlook 2022 In this episode of BBC Outlook, 2 sisters who were separated as children and raised in different foster families, talk about setting up Camp to Belong programs in the United States (and in Australia too). One of the sisters, Lynn Price, was 8 before she found out she had a biological sister. Even after she found out, Lynn spent little time with her sister, Andi Andree. The aim of Camp to Belong is to bring together other siblings who are separated by the foster care system. https://camptobelong.org/ External Website

Non Fiction American Baby: A Mother, A Child, and the Secret History of Adoption Gabrielle Glaser 2021 In 2021, American journalist Gabrielle Glaser published American Baby: A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption. Glaser used the case study of a teenage girl and her baby to tell the story of the mid-century practice of sending off ‘unwed’ girls and women to have their babies in secret and then ‘relinquish’ them to an adopting couple. For the next 50 years, the mother in the story, Margaret, regrets the loss of her son; the adoptive parents are bewildered by their son; and the son, David, hears he was chosen by his adoptive parents but wonders why his birth mother rejected him. There was something about post-war America, argues, Glaser, that encouraged the creation of ‘perfect’ nuclear families. Yet the adoption agencies collecting fees didn’t consider the feelings of adoptees, let alone that crucial medical information was not being passed along. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir My Life: A Record of Events and Opinions Alfred Russel Wallace 1905 The autobiography of British evolutionary scientist and writer, Wallace Alfred Russel, who was in foster and kinship care as a child. External Website

Films/Videos The Missing Children 2021 A powerful documentary about an Irish scandal has won an award at the 2022 Baftas for best Specialist Factual. The Missing Children tells the story of the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway, which operated between 1925 and 1961. In 1975, 2 boys playing on the site discovered skeletons. There are 2 stories explored in the documentary. One is that as many as 800 children had died in the Home and been carelessly buried in the grounds. The others is that as many as 1000 children were illegally sent to the US for adoption. Survivors tell the stories - adoptees who grew up in the US, and siblings of children who died in the Home. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16022722/ External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Windswept and Interesting. My Autobiography Billy Connolly 2021 "It's the first time I've done this. Other people have written about me - or for me - but this time, it's just my own life in my own words." In his first full-length autobiography, comedy legend and national treasure Billy Connolly reveals the truth behind his windswept and interesting life. Born in a tenement flat in Glasgow in 1942, Billy Connolly was abandoned by his mother as a small child. Living in kinship care with 2 aunties, and later with his father when he returned from WWII, the young Billy was relentlessly abused by his family. Billy found his escape first as an apprentice welder in the shipyards of the River Clyde. Later he became a folk musician. As a young comedian, Billy was fearless and outspoken. It was an appearance on Michael Parkinson's chat show in 1975 - and one outrageous story in particular - that catapulted Billy into a national star. External Website

Performing Arts Sierra Leonean-American Ballet dancer Michaela DePrince Michaela Mabinty DePrince (born Mabinty Bangura, 1995-2024) is a Sierra Leonean-American ballet dancer. With her adoptive mother, Elaine DePrince, Michaela authored the book 'Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina'. She rose to fame after starring in the documentary First Position in 2011, following her and other young ballet dancers as they prepared to compete at the Youth America Grand Prix. She formerly danced with the Dance Theatre of Harlem as the youngest dancer in the history of the company and currently dances as a soloist for the Dutch National Ballet. Since 2016 Michaela has been a goodwill ambassador with the Dutch organisation War Child, based in Amsterdam. DePrince passed away in New York City on September 10, 2024, at the age of 29. Her death was publicly announced three days later through her Instagram account and the Dutch National Opera's website. As of 23rd November 2024, the cause of her death remains undetermined. External Website

Writers Richard Rhodes When he first published A Hole in the World in 1990, Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Rhodes helped launch and legitimate a decade-long publishing phenomenon—the memoir of abused childhood. In this tenth anniversary edition, Rhodes offers new reflections on the abuse he and his older brother endured at the hands of their terrorizing stepmother and negligent father. He also describes readers' powerful and moving responses to his book, considers his changing sentiments as the years have passed, and provides additional details on his brother Stanley, who remains the author's true hero in this moving memoir. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Leatherstocking Tales James Fenimore Cooper 1841 The Leathingstocking Tales is a series of 5 novels featuring Natty Bumppo who is a white man raised by Delaware Indians and educated by members of a Protestant church, the Moravians. He is a courageous warrior with a number of nicknames, including Hawkeye. One of Cooper's stories featuring Natty Bumppo, "The Last of the Mohicans" has been adapted for film several times. Some historians believe that Nathaniel Shipman, who was a close friend of the Mohican Indians, was the inspiration for Natty Bumppo. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Care Experienced student behind new John Lewis Partnership brand: Made with Care John Lewis 2023 The John Lewis Partnership unveils Made With Care. A new lifestyle brand that combines great design and desirable products while creating a platform for talented people who have grown up in the care system. First design from the new brand launched at event to mark one year of the Building Happier Futures programme. The first product is designed by Michael Archibald, an 18-year old aspiring artist from Glasgow who has experienced care. Michael has crafted an inspiring piece of art to feature on a fashionable tote bag. Michael applied to take part in Made with Care through Who Cares? Scotland, the Partnership’s charity partner. He has worked with the John Lewis in-house design team and creative partners Saatchi & Saatchi to create his unique design. External Website

Fiction by Care Experienced authors Son of Sin Omar Sakr 2022 Son of Sin tells the story of Jamal who is coming to terms with being a queer Arab-Australian Muslim. He is growing up in an Australia where Islamophobio is rife and in a Muslim community that considers homosexuality as haram, a sin. Jamal lives with his mother and his brother, Moses, but for the first 7 years of his life he lived with an aunty, thinking the aunty was his mother. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Girl Edna O'Brien 2019 Girl (2019) by Irish writer Edna O’Brien is a harrowing portrayal of the abduction of schoolgirls by an extremist religious group. The story is inspired by the April 2014 kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls, mostly Christian, by the Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram. Edna O’Brien travelled to Nigeria to conduct research for her novel, research which included speaking to some of the girls who escaped. In Girl, the fictional narrator, Maryam is kidnapped, and later married off to a Boko Haram soldier. Having his child complicates the eventual return to Maryam’s own village. External Website

Academic Articles Reconsidering the care-crime connection in a climate of crisis Claire Fitzpatrick 2020 This article charts new ground by exploring the important increase in awareness surrounding the care–crime connection in recent years. The over-representation of care experienced individuals in criminal justice settings has long been taken for granted. However, there has been a recent surge of interest in England and Wales in the need to avoid unnecessarily criminalising looked after children, and to support those with care experience in prison. Paradoxically, this increased awareness has occurred at the same time as a climate of crisis has threatened both the care system’s and the prison system’s capacity to function effectively. Despite the current climate, this article argues that things can be done to challenge the care–crime connection. Such strategies include: changing our language, connecting distinct policy priorities and moving beyond the limits of the law. Furthermore, the development of a life-course perspective could significantly improve understanding of the impact of care experience over time. This article concludes by arguing that in the current climate, continued diversionary push-back from the youth justice system is vital. Crucially, this could help further reduce the number of first time entrants in the justice system, and ultimately offer the best prospects for reducing the number of children who move between care and custody. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Bone People Keri Hulme 2001 Winner of the Booker Prize in 1985, Keri Hulme's The Bone People is the story of Kerewin, a despairing part-Maori artist who is convinced that her solitary life is the only way to face the world. Kerewin's cocoon is rudely blown away by the sudden arrival during a rainstorm of Simon, a mute six-year-old whose past seems to hold some terrible trauma. In his wake comes his foster-father Joe, a Maori factory worker with a nasty temper. The narrative unravels to reveal the truths that lie behind these three characters, and in so doing displays itself as a huge, ambitious work that tackles the clash between Maori and European characters in beautiful prose of a heartrending poignancy. External Website

Writers Sharon Saltzberg American writer and meditation teacher, Sharon Salzbert (b. 1952) was born in New York City. When Sharon was 4, her father left the family. When she was 9, her mother died. Sharon then went to live with her paternal grandparents. Her grandfather died 2 years later. Although her father briefly returned, he then spent the rest of his short life in a mental hospital. Sharon Salberg spent 4 years in India studying with Dipa Ma (911-1989), a teacher of Theravada Buddhism. With Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein, Salzberg founding the Insight Meditation Society in 1974 and in 1989, with Goldstein, the Barre Centre for Buddhist Studies. She is the author of 11 books and has a podcast, the Metta Hour Podcast. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles "Malcolm Still Speaks." Ibram X. Kendi on George Breitman and the Enduring Legacy of Malcolm X. Literary Hub (Malcolm X) 2024 In this article, Ibram X Kendi tells of the ways in which he was influenced by African American great, Malcolm X (1925-1965). He writes of Malcolm’s incarceration for burglary: “… after holding down low-wage jobs and illegal hustles up and down the east coast; after moving east from Michigan at fifteen years old in 1941; after being alienated from school; after a white teacher said his aspiration to be a lawyer was “no realistic goal for a nigger”; after shuffling between foster families and detention homes in Michigan; after losing his mother to an insane asylum; after welfare officials connived to break up his impoverished family rather than support them…” He concludes that even though the 5 assassins who murdered Malcolm X tried to silence him, we can still hear him speak through (the recently republished) Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements. External Website

Films/Videos The Book of Esther 2013 The Book of Esther tells the story of an orphan. The Book of Esther is included in the Hebrew Bible following Lamentations & is read on the Festival of Purim. In the Roman Catholic tradition, the Book of Esther is between Nehemiah & Hob. In the Protestant canon, Esther is between Nehemiah & Job. Esther is an orphan & has been raised by her cousin Mordecai. When she becomes the wife of the Persian king Ahasuerus, she doesn’t initially tell him that she is Jewish and an orphan. Later, when Ahasuerus’ chief minister, Haman, orders the death of Jews in Persia, Esther persuades Ahasuerus to rescind the order. Instead of being killed on the day planned for their annihilation, the Jews kill their enemies. The Book of Esther has been adapted for stage & film several times, including the 2013 film starring Jen Lilley as Queen Esther. External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Let Me Tell You. Mending a Broken Childhood Anthony McCabe 1998 With the 'Welfare Lady' providing the only support and consistency in his early life, Tony moves from school to school and from foster home to foster home, beset by behavioural problems no-one understands and that he cannot control. External Website

Films/Videos Grace and Frankie 2015–2022 Grace and Frankie is an American comedy television series series (Netflix) stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as the eponymous Grace Hanson and Frankie Bergstein, two aging women who for as long as they can recall, have been rivals. Their one-upmanship comes crashing to a halt, however, when they learn that their husbands have fallen in love with each other and want to get married. Nwabudike "Bud" Douglas Bergstein is one of the main characters in Grace and Frankie. He is the adopted son of Frankie and Sol Bergstein and the adopted brother of Coyote Bergstein. He is currently a lawyer at Robert and Sol's firm, Hanson & Bergstein. External Website

Television Shows The Hour 2011 The Hour is a British television servies about a new BBC current affairs program. Set in 1956, it stars Ben Whishaw, Romola Garai & Dominic West. In the 1st series, there is some conversation about journalist Freddie Lyon being evacuated during the war and staying with Lord & Lady Elms. For how long, it's not clear, but Freddie becomes good friends with Ruth Elms. In the 2nd series, there is an adoption story. New Head of BBC News (Peter Capaldi) and journalist Lix Storm (Anna Chancellor) begin a search for their child who was put up for adoption in Spain in 1938. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Extraordinary Adventures of Foundling Mick Jules Verne 1893 The Extraordinary Adventures of Foundling Mick by French novelist, Jules Verne (1828-1905), was first published in 1893, but then 'lost' until 2008. Set in 19th century Ireland, the story follows Mick from one bad ‘placement’ to another until he finds safe haven with a kind couple in Kerry and financial success in Dublin. Apparently, Verne never travelled to Ireland (although he visited Scotland) but he had considerable respect for the Irish. External Website