To build an inclusive community we don’t want to use the system labels of the past. The care community should be about anyone that cares about care and the people who have been in or around it. To help explain the idea we’ve broken it down into three rough categories, some people will overlap in these categories like the picture to the right.
The care community is not about removing safe spaces for particular groups but creating additional places for everyone. As the diagram to the right shows, at the centre is our community.
Read below for a more in-depth explanation of the categories.
The idea of the care community has traditionally been limited to those who have lived and gone through the care system, as defined by labels. However, the recent rebellion of those with care experience using it as an identity, rather than a label, demonstrates that this is no longer a sufficient way to measure identity. Care experience can be a lifelong aspect of someone’s identity. If individuals decide this is the identity they would like to align with, they can also choose to be a part of the community.
Everyone has lived experience, thats why it is such a powerful phrase. It is using what people have done, seen, learned and listened to. Building a care community needs as many hands as possible. The lived experiences of others that have worked or engaged with people who have been in care is so important in this. They bring a different element that is important to an inclusive diverse community.
The third rough category of the community is one that we often think of as being outside of the community. However, those that are interested in care and helping those who are in it or have been in it, are so important. It is a broad category of people that could extend from friends to the general public. It is those who want to help but don’t have an avenue in.
Copyright – 2022
