Between 2019-2023, we worked alongside Family Rights Group so that the parents and kinship carer advisory panels have the skills and confidence to advocate for themselves and their communities publicly.
Family Rights Group is a national charity that advises parents, grandparents, relatives and friends about their rights and options when social workers or courts make decisions about their children’s welfare. They work with parents whose children are in need, at risk or who are in the care system as well as with wider family members and friends who are raising children (known as ‘kinship carers’).
Sounddelivery Media began partnering with Family Rights Group in 2019 to deliver practical storytelling training for their kinship carers and families panel.
Since then we have delivered dozens of workshops in blogging, vlogging, audio and social media.
Worked with 25 panel members.
We have co-curated two ‘Our Families, Our Voices’ events for 100+ people working in this child welfare system.
Panel members have grown in confidence, recognising their own expertise and speaking publicly to the media, to policy makers, politicians and commissioners of services, including being involved in the government’s 2022 Independent review of children’s social care and in the media. Staff members have gained new skills in digital leadership to further the charity’s mission.
“Their support and assistance has been invaluable. It’s hard to put into words how much things have changed since I became involved with Sounddelivery Media. I’ve had opinion pieces published in the national press, I have had radio programmes – Woman’s Hour, Radio 4 Four Thought. I have enjoyed the process from beginning to end.”
Angela Frazer-Wicks MBE, Chair of Trustees and Founding Member of Parents Panel, Family Rights Group
Listen to Angela Frazer-Wicks MBE, Chair of Trustees and Founding Member of Parents Panel who we supported to deliver this BBC Radio 4 Four Thought talk ‘Mum…Again‘ in 2019:
We have now trained panel members to deliver our workshops in house, so that the skills, knowledge and confidence can be cascaded to anyone that joins. We want our work to have a lasting, sustainable impact for the organisation.
Our work is about long-term relationships. We believe that by working in this way, those with direct experience of the issue they advocate for are supported in a meaningful way, and the legacy of our training will stretch far beyond the programme of workshops.
“Our collaboration with SDM has been transformative as a charity, it has challenged us in the way we interact with the media and use communications. Most importantly, for parents and kinship carers that we work for the relationship has been both uplifting, it has increased their confidence, but it has also enabled them to use their voice to change the stigma, presumptions, and stereotyping around families involved in the child welfare system. And that is crucial to us being able to change policy and practise for the sake of the children.”
Cathy Ashley, Chief Executive, Family Rights Group