Kinship Carers; the independent voluntary group that offers knowledge, experience and friendship to kinship carers looking after children from within their family structure have been undertaking.
(prHWY.com) August 29, 2012 - Oxford, United Kingdom -- Oxford, England, August 29, 2012 -- Kinship Carers; the independent voluntary group that offers knowledge, experience and friendship to kinship carers looking after children from within their family structure have been undertaking a Twitter campaign to help raise awareness of the complex situations that exist in many families across the UK and beyond.
Whilst being a very common occurrence in many UK families, kinship caring is a little known or understood arrangement, which is why Kinship Carers have been undertaking an innovative social media exercise to publicise and educate carers, other organisations and the wider public about how they work.
A kinship carer is someone who looks after a child who is either related to, or has a pre-existing relationship with that child. Whereas foster carers look after children as a vocation, a kinship carer takes responsibility of the child due to a variety of reasons such as bereavement, drugs, alcohol or neglect by the natural parents. This is often with no prior warning or planning.
Â
The amount of children looked after in this way is astounding! One in 77 children in the UK (and similar figures in other countries around the developed world) are raised full time by friends or family members who are not the child's biological parents. Whilst the figures are extraordinary, it does not tell the full story of the challenges faced by kinship carers when they receive the call from Social Services saying they are needed to look after a child that they know who is in need.
Â
The call is usually the start of a journey for a carer who has to ensure that their primary concern is the child in their care. Before the call, they are unaware of their rights. As a result they face challenges which can include conflict with the biological parents and, in many cases, their wider relatives. Kinship Carers have to handle, and protect the children from the start of the relationship and during such pressure topics as contact visits needing supervision; intrusive assessments by local authorities; financial hardship; legal bills and lack of support.
Â
Kinship carers from the UK, Australia and the USA have come together in a unique campaign that is currently being run using Twitter. It is the journey of a kinship carer from the moment the initial call is made to the end of the story and is communicated via Tweets as if it were real life. The one big difference is that is that the story is simplified! Many carers around the world face scenarios so challenging and outrageous that they become unbelievable and could not be covered in the Twitter campaign, but that does not undermine its effectiveness.
The original concept was to present the scenario as "soap opera" with constructed situations, but as the campaign has evolved, it has already taken a life of its own with individuals and organisations offering advice and support to Tweeters not realising they are not real characters.
The latest situation in the saga is available going to
http://kinshipcarers.co.uk/Unique-Awareness-Project.php
Â
#Kintender has been created to link the Tweets together and this hashtag has already started to be used by interested parties in relation to kinship care topics online.
For further information, please contact Charlie James: Email: kinshipfostercarers@gmail.com, Website: kinshipcarers.co.uk
About Kinship carers:
Kinship carers is an independent voluntary group formed to provide help and support to carers who are in the position of looking after children of relatives or friends as they are not able to do so. It provides information, knowledge, experience and friendship as well as pointing carers in the right direction regarding legal matters and other avenues of support for them and the children they care for.
Contact:
Charlie James
Kinship carers
Oxford, England
kinshipfostercarers@gmail.com
http://kinshipcarers.co.uk/
###