Meet Anne-marie Bird from Become
This month we’re meeting Anne-marie Bird, Services Manager (Education, Work and Community) for Become.
Tell us about Become
We’re the national charity that’s here to support every child and young person with experience of the care system. We’re here to help every single care-experienced young person, so they get the support they need. Care-experienced people should have the same chances as everyone else to live happy, fulfilled lives.
What is your role at Become?
I oversee the Propel services within Become: Propel into Education, Propel into Work and Link Up. Link Up is for young people to informally connect and meet up, online and in person. There is a video here of all the services available for young people at Become.
What are the Propel services?
These services support young people up to the age of 27 who are in care or have experience of care .
Propel into education supports young people through advice and guidance online or email and online workshops. We offer sustained 1:1 support, mostly supporting young people through their journey applying and starting to apply to HE. Our 1:1 support is available for any age young person looking for support with their education. Our main programme supporting education is called Uni Ready – this is a year long programme of support covering looking at universities, applying, exploring support, finding and applying for finance, personal statements, preparing to start to university and adjusting to being a university student.
Propel into Work similarly offers a service of advice and guidance with online workshops and 1:1 sustained support around employability skills which are aligned to where young people are at. For example, those starting to explore jobs or those looking to apply for work, adjust to work or develop within the workforce.
Tell us about your event coming up in Sussex working with the SLN and University of Sussex
We’re really excited about this event, bringing Become, and Propel, to young people in Sussex. The event is about supporting young people to think about their next steps. We’re inviting young people aged between 11-18 to join us on March 18th at the i360 in Brighton. They will hear from the team at Propel into Education and Work as well as the SLN and University of Sussex with careers and information guidance advice. As well as finding out lots of information, the day includes a ride in the i360 and lunch. We’re hoping the day will be an exciting opportunity for young people to learn about the support available to them now and in their future. If young people would like to bring a carer with them, they are very welcome to. The event is fully funded including public transportation, lunch and free i360 ride! Booking are being organised by the Uni & U team please email to find out more.
What support can Become offer schools and colleges?
There are really two sides to this. One is making sure young people know about the support they can access through our services teams, including care advice service (advice and phone line) and the propel into work and education services. All this information is available on our website, and you can find it here.
The other side is about making sure schools and colleges have a good understanding of what it means for a young person to be care experienced. We have free resources available for education settings including ‘teachers who care’, a film and training resource which is available here. The training takes a whole school approach, rather than just for designated members of staff, so everyone has a better understanding of the experiences and needs of care experienced young people‑experienced young people
Alongside these free resources, we also offer additional training packages - both bespoke and ready‑made-which you can explore here.
What resources are available for schools and colleges to support their care experienced learners?
There’s lots of information, advice and resources on our webpages - both for young people and for the adults supporting them. We also have the Propel institution search engine, where you can look up the different support packages and key contacts at universities across the UK. It’s a really helpful tool for young people who are deciding where they might want to study. There is a great FAQ video focused on care experienced young people moving on to university, featuring two of our young people, which is a brilliant resource and can be seen here.
If you have groups of young people with experience of care, we offer a series of workshops you can book – covering education, employability, rights and entitlements. These can be delivered online or in person at your school or college by our team. Colleagues can contact me directly for more information.
We have worked with SLN and the University of Sussex to develop resources which include ‘What Next at 14, 16 and 18 for young people in care and with care experience’ and three short films; From school and college to university, Starting university and Starting employment which can be found here.
If anyone has any questions about supporting care experienced learners that I haven’t covered, I’d be happy to speak with them, the easiest way is to email me directly and I’ll get in touch.
You can find further information on the SLN website here to support your work with care experienced learners