St Christopher’s young people make an impression in Parliament

5 February 2009

On Wednesday 21st January 2009 a group of five young people from our UK children’s homes, accompanied by our two participation assistants, attended a meeting of the Associate Parliamentary Group for Looked-After Children and Care Leavers (APG). The theme of this particular meeting was ‘promoting positive images of children in care’.

Three of “our” young people contributed to the debate, speaking in front of over 150 people – including other young people, professionals, an MP and even an Earl!

Those who attended are all members of ‘Challenge4Change’ (C4C); St. Christopher's newly-renamed service user participation panel.  Their contributions to the APG covered issues such as the importance of looked-after young people engaging with the community in order to improve their image, the need to be seen as just like any other young people, the importance of addressing issues such as gun and knife crime and how young people have turned their lives around through using the support offered by St Christopher’s.

We hope this will be the first of many such experiences for C4C members.