The Children’s Fora
The children’s Fora is an event designed to bring together children who are living in foster care. Through working in partnership with the long-term children in care team, a HYLS Youth support worker, Leah Hedigan and a Social care leader in Tusla, Adrian McGoldrick, work together to organise and form this event, three to four times a year for those children who are living in foster care in the Sligo, Leitrim and West Cavan areas.
As a child in care, it is important that your voice is heard. This FORA will give children an opportunity to speak about what they feel could improve the service’s they are given and will also allow them to talk to and engage with other children in care.
This FORA gives the young people a chance to enjoy a fun day of activities where they get to know other young people that share similar situations and stories as themselves.
The young people show respect and understanding of each other throughout the day, providing encouragement and support during activities. If any young person may feel nervous at the outset, a welcoming approach by all young people is given to ensure a positive experience is had for all present. Each young person thoroughly enjoys the FORA day’s and look forward to the next event.
Since April of 2023, The Fora group engaged in puppet making. The group spent the morning using fabrics, glue guns and googly eyes, formulating a puppet of their choice. Throughout the year, we hope to continue adding to this idea with the aim to design a short film that will include their homemade puppets. We hope to address some of the young people’s views, opinions, and insights into living in care by using the puppets as their disguise. This is an ongoing project, but we hope to see an end product in the near future.
