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19 February 2021

Marking Care Day 2021 at EC

Care Day is an international celebration of the Care Experienced community and at Edinburgh College we are proud to work with partners across the city to celebrate and empower our care experienced students, today and every day.

Care Day aims to: 

  • Celebrate: Shift public attitudes on Care Experienced people’s lives.
  • Connect: Bring together the Care Experienced community with their allies and Corporate Parents to talk about how we can ensure Care Experienced people get the love, rights and relationships they deserve.
  • Communicate: Motivate the Care Experienced community, their allies and corporate parents to share their celebrations, show their commitments and ignite discussion.

On Care Day 2021, we’re amplifying the voices of our care experienced students and our partners, and are encouraging others from the care experienced community to join us!

Growing up wasn’t easy for me, I was bullied from a young age, a Carer for my mum for as long as I can remember and had my own mental and physical health issues. When I was 12 I started going in and out of respite care which led to me being placed in residential care as my mum wasn’t well enough to look after me and nor was I for her. Due to all of this I dropped out of school, thought I had no future because I left with no qualifications. I was surrounded by lots of negative comments from people about how care experienced people won’t go far in life and I genuinely started to believe that. It took me a long time to realise I am more than just one label. I am more than what everyone says I should be. I am not my past. I am not whats happened to me. And with the confidence I got from pursuing the future I know I deserve, I realised it doesn’t matter what labels I have, what matters most is I’m breaking the stigma and aiming for what I know I’m capable of.
Rae, Introduction to Social Services student
My family wasn’t your stereotypical parents and siblings set up. From a young age, I was brought up in kinship care by my grandmother and even though my situation was different, I got all the love I needed. This did lead to bullying from others in school who didn’t understand my circumstances. This affected my behaviour and I ended up moving schools several times, as well as taking my anger out on those close to me. When I was 16, my Gran was diagnosed with cancer and neither of us could cope, so I went into residential care. All this, on top of being a teenager, meant I had several false starts in further education and looking back, it led to some stupid life choices. Were my behaviours then the unrecognised early symptoms of my constant battle with mental health? We’ll never know. On the upside, it did give me the strength and motivation to use my experiences to help others. Now my life’s a bit more stable, I’ve returned to education to do something I love: Events Management. I’m even considering applying for University! Can you believe that? I never thought this would ever be possible. Reflecting on my journey so far, one thing that stands out to me is that identity takes time to develop and past mistakes do not define the person I am today
Alistair, HND Events Management student
We at the HUB for SUCCESS love working with Edinburgh College to support people with care-experience to get in, stay in and return to study. It really is relationships at the heart that make change. Being able to pick up the phone and talk about how we can make things better, how we can change things. So here is to Care Day 2021 and to change and to working together to #KeepThePromise and to ensuring that Care-experienced people have the lives and futures they deserve.
Lorraine Moore, HUB for SUCCESS

Today, is also our Virtual Open Day 2021, and our Care Experienced Lead Catherine has recorded this short video to help the care experienced community with applying to study with us…

Happy #CareDay21 from Edinburgh College!