The level of invisibility of the issues facing young people leaving care has not fundamentally altered in the past 20 years., Theres still a very clear judgment passed when people hear you say, I was in care, says Akiya Henry. Not even a Bible. For ever, for ages, until the end came, no matter how volatile the day had been, Id pray shed open the bedroom door before I slept, Id pray shed sit on the edge of my bed and sing me to sleep as she did when I was younger. The abuse she endured, none of which came from her own family, was incomprehensible and frightening, she says. His zodiac sign is Gemini. A lot of care-experienced people will also measure success by how were feeling internally, how we manage our mental health and wellbeing, and not always what were achieving externally. Moved into a childrens home aged six, Saha then went to live with adoptive parents in Merseyside the following year a complex but positive experience for which he feels lots of gratitude. Its taken a lot of years to reflect back to my foster parents what they did to me. Its like, should I be receiving all of this, should I even be doing it? he says. Music producer/writer; founder of clothing labels Duffer of St George and Sharpeye; author; one of the two creators of the rare groove scene; photographer; activist. I asked when my clothes and toys would be arriving. They carry on, and people deal with them in various ways. Goddard is the chair of the Care Leavers Association, which focuses on care leavers of all ages it might help people access their care files, or deal with issues around social isolation. There's only one person in the world called Lemn Sissay. Mr Sissay detailed his experiences in the British care system in his autobiography of his early life - My Name Is Why. These moments stuck in my memory. This is Lemn's story: a story of neglect and determination, misfortune and hope, cruelty and triumph. "I found out about your past and then I heard you on Desert Island Discs," Lisa told Lemn . On the back another poem is handwritten, composed on the train into London this morning, fresh on the page. Norman Mills, my new social worker, waited at the gate. In his memoir My Name is Why, the award-winning writer and poet tells the story of his fight for justice and finding hope and creativity while caught in an uncaring and dangerous bureaucracy. All I knew was that my birth mother, the woman who had my face and my blood, was from Africa and Africa was where poor people were. He learned that his real name was not Norman. She lived with a foster family from 12 to 14 and then spent a couple of years in a childrens home. In 2017 he launched the Lemn Sissay. He is in two minds about searching for his birth parents. Both almost insisted Norman had to leave today. Social workers report, 2 January 1980: Attitudes seemed hardened and therefore I arranged to take Norman to Woodfields. Social workers report. He has been made an Honorary Doctor by the universities of Manchester, Kent, Essex, Huddersfield and Brunel, and in 2019 . By the time Sissay was approaching adolescence, cracks in their relationship had started to appear. Theres all sorts of shapes of family that can work and your community can be whatever you choose it to be. Books were a way to escape from the madness around me, be that foster care, family, or residential homes. But nothing was coming from there. I carried a lot of anger for many years and then I realised that the anger is one of the things that kills people. Lucy Sheen, whose Chinese name is Chau Lai-Tuen, aged one in the home of her adoptive parents. He has authored collections of poetry and plays. Come what may, I may be knocked down, but I wont be down for long., Artist and founder member of the darkroom e5process, Tina Rowe first encountered racism when, aged six, she moved with her white adoptive family from a small Oxfordshire village to Malvern in Worcestershire. Lemn Sissay was born on 21 May 1967 in Billinge Hospital, near Wigan, Lancashire Higher End, England, UK. My home situation was dire. It was amazing to be seen, says Olumide Popoola about some of the social workers who helped her through care in Germany. Tomorrow came and I said it with pride because I thought I had found the answer they wanted me to find: I mustnt love you, I said. I still think love is the most important thing. My brother Christopher is a year younger than me and I really loved him when I was a kid. Sissay reflects on his childhood, self-expression and Britishness, and in doing so explores the institutional care system, race, family and the meaning of home. The heartache and anger of his youth alternate in his poetry with lighter, whimsical aphorisms and celebrations of place . A lot of transracial adoptees talk about how racist their white families are, but actually, its racism that affects them too, and the way they see the world, says Rowe. Growing up, the moment someone found out I was care-experienced, theyd make negative assumptions, says Lucy Reynolds, who had moved in and out of care eight times before being adopted aged seven. Id never thought of myself as a different person., Principal and artistic director of Bird College, Sidcup. His affectionate nickname was Bunty. To help others like her, Button has co-founded calling4gr8ness.org, a programme supporting care-experienced young adults in the creative industries. He has authored several collections of poetry, as well as plays for both stage and public radio, and was official poet of. To mark National Poetry Day this month, poet and author Lemn Sissay muses on a country childhood of mixed blessings - and why this year he is more hopeful than ever. He spoke of finding wreckage from the crash in the documentary Internal Flight which can be viewed on YouTube. Director of strategy and integration for Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, Im hopeful that attitudes towards those in care are changing, says Meera Mistry, who was in foster care in London for most of her teens. He had a brother and sister, Christopher and Sarah, and then Mrs Greenwood had another child, Helen. In two months time they would send me away forever as if I were a stranger. They were just friends, says Cato, now an expert on Antiques Roadshow. I loved my family. Audio CD. My mother was a manic depressive, so I was in and out of care. During this time, no care worker knew him for beyond a year and meanwhile he had lost his parents, his siblings and other family, his friends, his first girlfriend, his town and his identity. Author, broadcaster, chancellor of the University of Manchester. It must be true. Ive loved mussels ever since. Social services placed the baby Lemn into long-term foster care, advising the foster family to treat this as adoption. Wherever I lived, my care experience included libraries and reading, and without them I wouldnt be here, says Rosie Canning, who was put into care in London at six weeks. Other weird things started to happen. I was lucky to have a loving upbringing, but I find Im never really happy with what Ive done, he says. The journey took about 45 minutes, or 45 seconds. I was challenged with a lot of preconceived ideas and biases by the adults I was around, about whether I could be a mum and make it through against all odds. Walker managed to hold on to her child and was later able to focus on education, which saved me, she says. It maybe shapes certain aspects of your character and your attitude to life, says Tom Riordan of the experience of being in care. His mother refused to sign the adoption papers. None of us have ever looked into our birth parents, he says. These are social graces that help us to move on.. He dived into Mums arms and said: Mum, I beat Norman, didnt I? She stroked his head and said: Yes, you did. And then she looked at me. But success is not about being the lord mayor, she told a group of care leavers recently. Thats all I knew. An encounter with Sylvester Stallone in the Sinai desert, while working as an extra on Rambo III, prompted Mark Riddell to turn his turbulent care experience into a force for change. Her care experience in West Yorkshire was reasonably positive, partly because I was just happy to have a home. He received his MBE in 2010. Which is interesting, because I always saw myself as white. The abuse was confusing, he says, but Im quite stubborn. I was a questioner. I sat at the table and my mum looked at me intensely. I used to let Christopher win at things, because he would get really upset when he didnt win, so I would play the wall and then let the ball go, and say to the wall: 15 love, to you. There was always a decision as I got to the end of the game with the wall, about whether Id let him win or not. They refused. Of course I loved them. 4 October 1979: The Greenwoods are seen by Norman as his parents, and they and their natural children meet his needs in every way. Social workers report. I appreciate it.. I remember the smell of wet heather, bracken and fern. Today we stand proud as care leavers and remove societys stigma. Brown defied expectations by progressing to university and getting a Masters. Photo-Greenbelt Over the weekend, black British author, poet and playwright Lemn Sissay did his nation and the black community proud by picking up the very prestigious 2019 Pen. Buy My Name Is Why By Lemn Sissay. He holds an English nationality and belongs to Black ethnicity. When he was six, his adoptive mother died and he was sent to live with relatives for 15 months, until his father remarried and he moved back home. Mr Sissay, who grew up in the care system, shared his concerns after a report, published by the. Every one of us has a different story, says Sissay, beaming around the room in a shirt that is playing catch-up with the sun. Lemn was born in 1967; two months later, he was taken into care. ISBN: 9781786892362. The project is the brainchild of poet and activist Lemn Sissay, himself a graduate of the system, who wanted to create an image of successful lives as an inspiration for the many thousands of children struggling in care today. Lemn Sissay is a BAFTA-nominated, award-winning international writer and broadcaster. "I wanted to hold them accountable for what they did," Sissay says. I was excited because the family meeting was just me and Mum and Dad. I hadnt realised then but none of them would contact me ever again for the rest of my life. Theyd come down to see us and say hi. Now my mindset is slightly different. Thank you to Jude Kelly, and John McGrath. Natalie Hirst, right, with a girl she met while visiting her grandmother at her caravan site. We can go on to do better if were just given the same life chances as other people. And then Lemn spoke elegantly and measuredly as he delivered a cathartic unburdening of his formative years. I started thinking all over again. Ive put a great amount of my own time back into trying to improve things for other people., It destroys you as a person, the amount of anxiety you develop from always expecting something to go wrong in your life, says Tarell Mcintosh, who became homeless after two local authorities in south London failed to properly care for him. Rosie Canning, aged four, as a bridesmaid to her foster mothers son, 1962. I dont feel like its for me to make a story out of their sacrifices and goodwill., Director of access and participation, Rada, and co-director of We Are Bridge, Its so important to celebrate the successes, says Axa Hynes of the photoshoot at the Foundling Museum, but because there were so many hurdles it can also feel uncomfortable, a distraction from the deep, systemic societal change that has to happen. Hynes went into care aged 10, fostered by a family friend who had already been giving her family emotional and practical support. It's Mrs Catherine Greenwood, my foster mother of the first eleven years. Before joining digital arts platfrom WhyNow as creative director last year, Janet Lee worked for the BBC, where she was the editor of programmes including Imagine and The Culture Show and a producer on Desert Island Discs. I loved the sibling rivalry. (He later rejoined his mother after she remarried.) It was a taxing legal process that ended three years later, in 2015, with an out-of-court settlement. There are a lot of big emotions flying around the room. Why - and the search for the answer to why - became the word that defined Lemn . The foster parents have spoken of adoption, but they are afraid that investigations may lead to his mother. Social workers report. Pete Turner was adopted at five months and grew up in Bury in a very liberal family that loved me, he says. Now he works as a theatre-maker working with young and emerging artists, many of whom are also care-experienced. Why would I think anything else? Once in the care system, he became known as Chalky White and was moved to a new home each year, ending up at Woodend Assessment Centre, near Westhoughton. I opened the door to allow that to happen. At the age of seventeen, after a childhood in a foster family followed by six years in care homes, Norman Greenwood was given his birth certificate. The result is an. Composite: All images courtesy of contributors, Every one of us has a different story: a historic portrait of care system success, once was Christopher Goldsmith, reads a poem, neatly typed out on one side of a piece of A4 paper. Theres a sort of stoicism, he says, of how the experience shaped him. 19 April 1978: There is a letter on file from Normans mother, written in 1968, requesting he be returned to her in Ethiopia perhaps Norman should be made aware of this? Social workers report, on which someone has written in block capitals, NOT YET I THINK. My parents were amazing, but their colour-blind approach wasnt representative of societys view of me., There are at least two kinds of narratives about being in care, says Sylvan Baker. The documents armed Sissay with the necessary proof that "the government had stolen my childhood.". Mum told me they will never visit me because it is my choice to leave them because I didnt love them. The experience was marked by contradictions relating to her race and religion: I remember I had chickenpox and I couldnt go to the mosque, but we were allowed to go and see the Queen as she was visiting the town. Encouragement from teachers spurred her on to become an artist (she was nominated for the Turner prize in 2007). My mother had schizophrenia, I had a stepfather who was very violent to my mother and to me. We raced each other home from school every day and every day I got there first. Night cant drive out nightOnly the light aboveFear cant drive out fearOnly love. Macavity was such a contrast to my blond, blue-eyed brother Christopher. Lemn Sissay. The poemEmperors Butterfly Makerpaid tribute to the artists and entertainers who fill our leisure time he reminded the audience that once we have made our money we turn to music or poetry or art or literature, all of which have been imagined by someone. I always feel these two years [at the childrens home] made it possible for me to be who I am today.. On the back another poem is handwritten, composed on the train into London this morning, fresh on the page. I loved life. And this is what I found. Im always moving on to the next thing and thinking somethings going to go wrong., Artistic director, 20 Stories High theatre company. Yes, you did.. I was always falling uphill, he says. Norman Greenwood was given his birth certificate. Christopher was their first-born, but I was their first. Birthdays, Christmas, weekends, holidays I have to be the best family that I can be, to myself. Over the past few years I sensed I had done something wrong and yet didnt know what it was. Axa Hynes, right, with her foster sister Michelle Brown, also featured in the Foundling Museum photograph. What kept us stable is that we knew we had two mums and dads.. Sarah looked pretty as a picture in her blue floral dress. Sissay has spoken out about his care experience and its many traumas throughout his career as a poet and broadcaster. So it didnt just have to be: this is your problem. Poet, playwright, novelist, memoirist, radio broadcaster, documentary maker, public speaker, Chancellor of the University of Manchester. Born in London, Henry was privately fostered at six months by a wonderful couple in Weston-super-Mare who encouraged her dreams of becoming an actor shes currently starring in Mad House in the West End. April 1974: Im seven. Now, as he approaches his 55th birthday, he's added another: children's writer. He made me realise that it could be a strength not a hindrance. Shes now a patron of the Bolton charity Backup North West which helped her get her first flat when she was 17. Its not a shameful thing any more. Hoyle went into care as a young teenager and at 18 he set up a charity for care leavers called A National Voice: We campaigned to stop children in care leaving with their belongings in bin bags. Now he works for North Yorkshire county council identifying and implementing ways that we can make life better for children in care. Raise me with sunshine, bathe me in light: Lemn Sissay. Johanan Walker, aged 13, with her one-year-old daughter, during their time in care in Hackney. By isolating and highlighting the success of care-experienced people it can become voyeuristic and soothes decision-makers into thinking that meritocracy is real. Sissay spent 12 years with the Greenwoods. I am mightily proud of being care-experienced as its made me who I am today. Lemn means 'why' in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia, where celebrated poet Lemn Sissay's mother was from. Sometimes, if youve had my childhood, you try not to be defined by it, he says. Thank you. Today, we are as close as she can allow herself to be. She was taken into a mother and baby unit as a 12-year-old mum, and had to fight to keep her daughter. She calls on the phone and and I walk in the garden as we speak. He was awarded an MBE for services to literature by The Queen of England, The Pen Pinter Prize and a Points of Light Award from The Prime Minister. In prison I became an avid reader, he says an experience that paved the way for his career as a novelist. As much as you read this book and are in shock (or not) at how this young black child was dragged through a problematic system and feel angry at the injustices he has faced, you can't . Answering questions, he said he is still angry but now it is more defined and he does not maintain the same anger of his youth. 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