For Children Mental Health Week, we spoke with Author and Ted Talk speaker Catherine Knibbs to discuss how to connect with your young person in the digital space.

With the digital world constantly evolving and parents & carers often feeling alien to this new environment, Catherine shares how to engage with your young person and protect them from online harm and trauma.

Click the links below to find out more information and read more of Catherine work around cyber-trauma:

Catherines Website: Children and Technology

Polyvagal "motorway of wellness"- updated version with brain and body visuals. - YouTube

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Find out more about Blue Sky Fostering Here: www.blueskyfostering.com

Why not check out our Secret Foster Carer Blog here: https://blueskyfostering.blogspot.com

All views and opinions within our podcast are that of the individual we talk to.

We are back with a new episode of the Blue Sky Fostering Podcast with the amazing actors from Alter Ego Creative Solutions after their recent performance at Blue Sky Fostering of Chelsea's Story. After the production, we caught up with some of the cast.

We find out about the story of Chelsea, some of the technical elements of the production and how the team feel about performing it

‘Chelsea’s Story’ is our internationally renowned, hard-hitting Applied Theatre Production that has proven highly successful in raising awareness around the issues surrounding Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE). The play, which has now been seen by hundreds of professionals and over 950,000 young people throughout the UK, is followed by an actor facilitated post-show talk exploring the issues raised.

It tells the story of a group of three students who discover the diary of a girl called Chelsea. Chelsea was a 15 year old girl who, having fallen out with her friends and family, met a guy called Gary. Gary was kind, understanding, had a nice car, had his own flat and listened to her. Unfortunately, Gary was not what he seemed to be! Chelsea’s story is played out and examined by the three students who, along with their teacher, attempt to understand what happened to Chelsea" - AlterEgo website

Find out more here: www.alteregocreativesolutions.co.uk/chelseas-story/

Interested in Fostering, check out www.blueskyfostering.com 

We are joined by Dom, one of our Foster Carers here at Blue Sky Fostering, to talk about living and fostering, with Bi-Polar. Dom talks about his journey and his experiences 

For more information on Bi-Polar please visit:

For more information on Fostering, please visit: www.blueskyfostering.com 

Today we are joined by our co-host and Foster Carer, Dazz and teacher, trainer and consultant Mary-Anne Hodd

Mary-anne is a teacher, trainer and consultant with lived experience of growing up in Foster Care. Mary-anne designed and proposed a Guarantor Scheme for care leavers in the Devon area and has been successfully campaigning to incite policy change on a wider scale, taking this to Local Authorities across the country. Mary-anne is passionate about using her unique perspective to support organisations and authorities connecting the child's voice to the heart of all we do. 

Marcus Meets... Fiona Stephenson, Part 2!

Marcus is joined with our special guest, Foster Carer, Fiona Stephenson! This is Fiona’s second appearance on Marcus Meets as we talk to her live on our Facebook page about her journey from being in assessment to becoming a Foster Carer and looking after young people!

See Marcus Meets Fiona Part 1: https://youtu.be/JkYfv3XZsBA  

See more of Fiona's journey here, with Part 2 Video: https://youtu.be/zuPHuVwnL08 

For more information on Fostering, please visit www.blueskyfostering.com

Why not check out our Secret Foster Carer Blog here: https://blueskyfostering.blogspot.com 

Our Young Persons Voice blog can be found here: https://www.blueskyfostering.com/young-persons-voice/ 

The opinions of those within our podcast are that of the individual

This week we were joined by Foster Carer and Foster Wiki founder Sarah Anderson to talk about her unique, free to access guide for Foster Carers and those interested in fostering

We talk about her journey into Fostering. How FosterWiki came to be and also what is required of the fostering community, to help it grow.

FosterWiki is designed to help empower Foster Carers with knowledge, through examples and experiences of other Foster Carers.

FosterWiki is a FREE knowledge repository with open access to all. Search the FosterWiki here for FREE.

Visit the Foster Wiki Page Here: www.fosterwiki.com 

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Find out more about Blue Sky Fostering Here: www.blueskyfostering.com 

For more information on Fostering, please visit www.blueskyfostering.com

Why not check out our Secret Foster Carer Blog here: https://blueskyfostering.blogspot.com 

Our Young Persons Voice blog can be found here: https://www.blueskyfostering.com/young-persons-voice/ 

All views and opinions within our podcast are that of the individual we talk to

Relive the ninth instalment of the Marcus Meets live event series!

Marcus will be joined with a special guest, our Training & Participation Manager, Ed Thompson! This will be Ed’s second appearance on Marcus Meets as we talk to him live on our Facebook page about the Duke of Edinburgh Award!

This is our first Marcus Meets which features host Marcus Reeves and his special guest in the same room! Our Marcus Meets events started during lockdown so potential Foster Carers can access information about Blue Sky without leaving their homes.

If fostering is something you are thinking about and would like more information, please visit our website and www.blueskyfostering.com or call 0800 035 6499.

All views and opinions within our podcast are that of the individual we talk to

On Tuesday 20th of July 2021 we were joined at Blue Sky Fostering, by Baroness Doreen Lawrence at our Diversity Forum, to talk about how w can help shape the world of tomorrow for our young people. Baroness Lawrence talks about the Stephen Lawrence Foundation and how to access and make use of the resources they have within it and many other issues, also reflecting on her time campaigning for change.

More information can be found here:

The Stephen Lawrence Foundation: https://stephenlawrenceday.org 

The Lawrence Review: The disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities - : https://www.lawrencereview.co.uk 

For more information on Fostering, please visit:

www.blueskyfostering.co.uk 

We are back and today joined by the inspirational Ian Thomas.

Ian is a former looked after child who has gone on to be a role model for young people all across the country, through his work with NGO's, advocacy and Social Work. Ian talks to us about his life, his journey and what supported him along the way - even how as a young kid he was supported by the founder of Blue Sky, Simon - sat on the stairs in an office, who took the time to listen to him (and also sort him out with a bike which Ian said gave him focus and want to do something different)

Ian will be running some training for us at Blue Sky in the coming months, so this is a great opportunity to listen to his insight ahead of this. Ian runs an amazing selection of training and learning and his links can be found below

Social Media: 

Linked In- https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-thomas-5b573a100 

Twitter: @ian thomas 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ian.thomas.54922/ 

Media: 

Thomas, I. (2018) TEDx Talk, The Gift of Desperation. TEDx Birmingham City University. 

Thomas, I. (2021) Spoken Word for BASW World Social Work Month 2021‘We Are Social Workers’.

Fostering

For more information on Fostering, please visit www.blueskyfostering.com

Why not check out our Secret Foster Carer Blog here: https://blueskyfostering.blogspot.com 

Our Young Persons Voice blog can be found here: https://www.blueskyfostering.com/young-persons-voice/ 

All views and opinions within our podcast are that of the individual we talk to

Blue Sky Fostering are the first and only IFA to provide the DofE award and we are incredibly proud of holding our own licence. We have been doing this now for almost 6 years and have had many successes along the way for the young people we care for. I was really lucky today to be joined by Hayley who we have worked with for almost this entire time and she is an Operations Manager at the Charity.

So in our chat, we talk about her journey with the award, the perception of the award and how that's changing and some of the challenges faced by lockdown and how the award is flexible and the plans for helping young people achieve. 

For more information about Blue Sky Fostering please visit https://www.blueskyfostering.com or call 0333 258 6686

To find out more about doing your Duke of Edinburgh Award or what the award is about, please visit https://www.dofe.org or https://www.dofe.org/do/basicinformation.

To find out more about the mental health study conducted please visit: https://www.dofe.org/thelatest/youth-mental-health-crisis