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Television Shows The Good Witch's Family 2020 The Good Witch's Family is a 2011 Canadian/American family film and Hallmark Channel original movie written by G. Ross Parker and directed by Craig Pryce The film stars Catherine Bell as Cassandra "Cassie" Nightingale whose parents died when she was a child and who grows up in the US foster care system. Cassie became accustomed to travelling and moving as she was passed through foster homes. She ran away and continued travelling the world and learning about many different cultures, all the while honing her special gifts. Cassie is psychic and uses her intuition (and at times, a little magic) for good reasons. Life is going well for Cassie as she settles into marriage with Middleton Police Chief Jake Russell and as stepmom to Brandon and Lori. But evil soon blows into town in the form of Cassie's long-lost cousin Abigail, who whips up wickedness like a tornado. The once peaceful Russell family bickers night and day; Jake is fired after an argument with the Mayor over a bridge expansion; and Martha, the Mayor's wife, and town busybody walks out on her long marriage. As the town divides further over neighborhood expansion, Cassie is drafted to run for Mayor. Within her once-happy marriage, her family is unraveling, and Abigail's diabolical "double, double, toil and trouble" is the apex of Cassie's misery. What's a good witch to do? External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Heartlines: The Year I Met My Other Mother Susannah McFarlane & Robin Leuba 2016 Heartlines (2016) is an adoption story with a difference, the difference being that it is written by adoptee Susannah McFarlane and her birth mother Robin Leuba. In 1965, Robin travelled from Perth to Melbourne to give birth to her child. After 10 days, she returned to Perth and the baby, named Susannah, was adopted by a loving family. In 1989, Robin tried to contact Susannah. It takes until 2014, however, before Susannah is willing to correspond with Robin. Heartlines is the story of their reunion. External Website

Radio & Podcast The Children's Homes Scandal The Rest is Money 2024 In Episode 93 of The Rest is Money Podcast, presenters Steph McGovern and Robert Preston discuss the “commercial takeover” over children in state care who live in residential care or children’s homes. Every week, they say, it can cost between £10,000 and £30,000 for each child in a children’s home, money that is paid to a private company (4 out of 5 children’s homes are privately owned). The profit being made by these private companies can be sizeable (with suggestions of a profit margin of 20%+) even though the evidence suggests that the care is often questionable. Covered in the podcast are the likely reasons for the increase of children & young people living residential care, including the austerity programs instituted by David Cameron and George Osborne. Episode 95 continues the story, with the presenters talking about the huge response they had to Episode 93. Many people thought that “profit, children and care” were words that “should never appear in the one sentence. In this episode, the Secretary for Education, Bridget Philipson is included in the conversation. She said that measures to deal with the scandal – and she agreed it was a scandal – including improved regulation will soon be made public. External Website

Authors M Maya Angelou (radio) ➝ Samantha Morton on Growing Up in the Care Ssytem and Facing Adversity in the Acting World. Louis Theroux Podcast ➝ Loco Parentis Podcast ➝ Mary & George: the real history behind the new drama ➝ My long-lost sister was a surrogate mother to my twins ➝ Karen Menzies' hidden Aboriginal heritage ➝ Muhammad, Cervantes and the Algarve ➝ Mary lawson: Crow Lake ➝ Back to Top

Artists Arshile Gorky Arshile Gorky (1904 – 1948) was an Armenian-American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. In 1915, the boy and his mother and three sisters escaped Lake Van and he travelled to the United States as a sixteen year old. He spent most his life as a national of the United States. Along with Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, Gorky has been hailed as one of the most powerful American painters of the 20th century. As such, his works were often speculated to have been informed by the suffering and loss he experienced in the Armenian Genocide. External Website

Films/Videos The Blind Side 2009 A story featuring Michael Oher who played for the Baltimore Ravens of the US National Football League. The story follows a homeless Michael who has been through the foster care system being taken in by the Tuohy family who encourage him in his football career. External Website

Authors N Neigbours ➝ Back to Top

Sport Ayeisha McFerran - Hockey Player Ayeisha McFerran Ayeisha McFerran is an Ireland women's field hockey international. She was a member of the Ireland team that played in the 2018 Women's Hockey World Cup final. She was also named Goalkeeper of the Tournament. McFerran was also a member of the Pegasus team that won the 2014–15 Women's Irish Hockey League. Between 2015 and 2017 she was named three times as an NFHCA All-American while playing for Louisville Cardinals. When McFerran was 14 her mother was dying and she was told she would be put into foster care. She didn’t realise that she would be separated from her siblings. She had a good experience in foster where she was able to pursue hockey, some crucial to her wellbeing and aim in life: ‘They were very understanding of my situation, what I had come from and they were just very relaxed about me coming into their home. They just really made me feel very welcome from the get-go and that's something that many foster kids, I believe, don't have.’ External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience One Another (Novel) Gail Jones 2024 Eminent Australian writer Gail Jones has recently published a novel in which she fictionalises the life of Care Experienced Polish-British novelist, Joseph Conrad. In One Another, Jones has a Tasmanian student, Helen, completing her PhD thesis on Conrad at Cambridge University in 1992. The novel includes Helen’s manuscript on Conrad, along with an account of Helen’s relationship with Justin. The two stories interact with each other, including Conrad’s connections with Tasmania. Two other Care Experienced characters in the book too. Helen's mother who was in an orphanage from about the age of 9, and a friend of Joseph Conrad's, Irish nationalist Roger Casement (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Casement). Gail Jones says that Conrad & Casement "are connected by orphanhood - each raised by an uncle - and by their shock at the exploitation and cruelty they daily witness" (146) in the Congo. Casement was executed for treason on 3 August 1916 at Pentonville Prison. External Website

Blogs/Web Pages/Articles The Queen's Gambit is a striking study of female genius, and the drama of the year Sarah Hughes 2020 The Queen’s Gambit is the story of a troubled chess prodigy who after her mother was killed, grew up in an orphanage where the children were sedated with drugs. Sarah Hughes explores how it became a word-of-mouth hit External Website

Autobiography/Memoir Offla's Children: A Family Memoir Helena Ban Wilson et al. 2020 This is the poignant story of Zoltan Ban, a post-war Hungarian refugee living with mental illness, who desperately struggled to keep his young children after Jean, his English-born wife, died of breast cancer in 1963.Offla, as his children affectionately called him, was a highly intelligent, resourceful and eccentric man who demonstrated extraordinary determination to maintain the bond with his children while they grew up in State care in a church-run children’s home in Queensland. This memoir by Offla’s children, Paul, Helena and Liz, expresses strong emotion leavened with humour. They invite us to see through each of their eyes how their different inner worlds unfolded within the outer world of institutional life and against the historical backdrop of events such as Billy Graham’s crusade, the Cold War and man landing on the moon. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Language of Flowers Vanessa Diffenbaugh 2012 The Victorians used flowers to express emotions: honeysuckle for devotion, azaleas for passion, and red roses for love. For Victoria Jones, flowers and their meanings are her only connection to the world – although for her, they are most useful in expressing feelings such as grief, mistrust and solitude. After a childhood in the foster care system, Victoria – now eighteen – has nowhere to go, and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own. When her talent is discovered by a local florist, she discovers her gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But it takes a meeting with a mysterious vendor at the flower market for her to realize what's been missing in her own life. As she starts to fall for him, though, she must confront a painful secret from her past – and decide whether it's worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness. External Website

Behind the Scenes Barbara Sumner-Burstyn New Zealander Barbara Sumner was 10 days old in 1960 when she was adopted. She and her partner, Tom Burstyn, a cinematographer born in Canada, founded Cloud South Films (NZ) in 2005 and Cloud South North Films (Canada) in 2013. They have won a number of awards for their documentaries. External Website

Films/Videos You be the Judge 2021 In this video, Australian survivor of child sexual abuse, Marita Murphy, tells of being raped as a 7-year-old while in an informal foster care situation. Although adults - including her mother - were told of what happened, there was no redress for Marita. Resultant behaviour problems led to Marita leaving school at the age of 12. She went on to have a successful career in the house racing industry. Marita reported the rape to police in 2013. After the police dropped the criminal case (insufficient evidence) Marita brought a civil case against the alleged rapist; the judge decided the events happened too long ago. External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People Just us Gabrielle Carey 1984 Just Us, tells the story of a romance between a prisoner and a journalist. Terry Haley had been in institutions from the time he was 8. Haley was serving a sentence for abduction and rape in 1972 when he escaped from Yatala Prison in South Australia. He was in Parramatta Gaol when Gabrielle Carey, a journalist, met and fell in love with him. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Family likeness Caitlin Davies 2013 Family Likeness explores identity, race, and family secrets. The story follows Muriel Grey, the daughter of a white Englishwoman and an African American soldier stationed in England during World War II. Abandoned by her mother at a children’s home in the 1950s, Muriel grows up feeling unwanted and different. Despite her hardships, she builds a life for herself—attending college, working, and eventually marrying and having a daughter, Rosie. After her husband's death, Muriel focuses on providing for Rosie, content to leave the pain of her past buried. However, Rosie is determined to uncover her mother’s history. She tracks down Muriel’s father, Jonas Murrey, now living in London. When he rebuffs her, Rosie becomes relentless, even taking a job as a nanny for his children to force a confrontation. Her pursuit reveals painful family secrets but does not necessarily lead to the closure she seeks. Rosie takes the children to Kenwood where both Ella and Rosie share an interest in Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate daughter of a Navy Captain and a West Indian woman. Here is another mixed race child whose life was dictated by her colour. The novel sheds light on the discrimination faced by mixed-race children in post-war Britain, the stigma of interracial relationships, and the emotional scars passed down through generations. It offers a moving reflection on identity, loss, and the complexities of family ties. External Website

Actors Rajesh Khanna Rajesh Khanna, born Jatin Khanna; 29 December 1942 – 18 July 2012) was an Indian actor, film producer and politician who is best known for his work in the Hindi cinema. Rahesh was adoped by relatives of his parents. He is referred to as the "First Superstar" of Indian cinema. He starred in 15 consecutive solo hit films from 1969 to 1971, a record unbroken. During his career he appeared in more than 168 feature films and 12 short films. He received the Filmfare Best Actor Award three times and the BFJA Awards for Best Actor (Hindi) four times. In 2014, his biography Rajesh Khanna – The untold story of India's first Superstar by Yasser Usman was published by Penguin Books. In 2018, a one kilometre fitness trail in Lajpat Nagar National Park was named after Khanna, which was inaugurated by his wife Dimple Kapadia. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience The Flying Troutmans Miriam Toews 2008 The Flying Troutmans by Canadian writer, Miriam Toews, is the heartbreaking yet hopeful story of Hattie’s courageous efforts to care for her niece and nephew while their mother, Min, is in a psychiatric ward of the local hospital. It’s 11 year old Thebes who calls her aunt, 28 year old Hattie, in Paris and begs her to return to Canada to help (as she often has in the past). Hattie is well aware that the children are at risk of being taken into state care; the hospital social worker has already alluded to that. But she’s also unsure about what part she wants to play in their upbringing. Hattie decides the best thing to do is take Thebes and 15 year old Logan on a road trip to locate their long missing father, Doug Cherkis. . External Website

Actors Sylvester Stallone Sylvester Enzio Stallone, born Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone, July 6, 194, is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. Because of his parents' difficult relationship, he spent considerable time in foster care until he was five and moved in with his father. After his beginnings as a struggling actor for a number of years upon arriving to New York City in 1969 and later Hollywood in 1974, he won his first critical acclaim as an actor for his co-starring role as Stanley Rosiello in The Lords of Flatbush. Stallone's Rocky films were box office successes, and he is the only actor in US cinema history to have regularly starred in box office successes over 50 fifty years. External Website

Poets Lorraine Mafi-Williams Lorraine Mafi-Williams Lorraine Mafi-Williams (1940-2001) was in childrens homes from the age of 12, one of 6 children stolen from their parents. Lorraine made it back to her parents when she was 18. She became an activist working to improve health services for Aboriginal people. She also edited the first anthology of Aboriginal poetry, Spirit Song, which was published by Omnibus Books in 1993. External Website