Katie’s Next Shared Lives Chapter

You might remember Katie’s inspiring journey last July, when she reflected on her college work placement experience with the Shared Lives team. Now, she’s reaching new heights—this time on a national stage! 

Earlier this year, Shared Lives Plus, (Shared Lives national membership organisation), launched a campaign to recruit Ambassadors for the Shared Lives Care Leavers programme. This two-year initiative, running from 2024 to 2026, is designed to expand and enhance Shared Lives support for care leavers. Drawing on her recent work experience and her dedication to helping Shared Lives grow and thrive, Katie—supported by her Shared Lives Carer, John, and Shared Lives Area Coordinator, Cathy—was inspired to apply for the role. 

Katie reports, “Following on from my other achievements; helping the team with promoting Shared Lives, being part of an interview panel and even starting up a monthly bowling group with the help of Dudley Voices for Choice, I am really pleased to have been offered a new role as a Care Leaver Ambassador for Shared Lives Plus. I am excited about it because I get to work with new people to promote Shared Lives and share my experiences of leaving care“.  

Working alongside Shared Lives Plus, the role of the ambassador plays a key role in achieving the projects objectives, as well as promoting Shared Lives and Homeshare, and working with other organisations to encourage greater partnership working and understanding across health and social care, housing, and the charity and public sectors. The ambassadors’ public role includes meeting commissioners, chairing and speaking at conferences and receptions, working to influence decision makers whilst also working alongside colleagues in delivering and guiding our work. 

Although early days, Katie has already made her mark within the team… ‘”So far, I have enjoyed listening and learning about the other care ambassadors about a bit of their experience on leaving care and going into Shared Lives. I have also attended my first conference in Birmingham on the 15 May, where people were giving up dates about what is working and what is not. At the conference we planned an activity where people were given a list of 10 things which we thought was important to care leaves and they need to put it in older starting from the most important. I was able to give my own views, which I hope will help schemes and professionals think about how they work with young people in the future”.  

The programme builds on the great work from the DfE Innovation project to spread and scale Shared Lives for care leavers with the ambitious vision that Shared Lives will be a core element of every Local Offer for Care Leavers. 

“I do believe that Shared Lives should be an option and be made available for more care leavers because it could help a lot more people with the support Shared Lives Carers offer, whether long term, respite or day support.” 

We are so proud of Katie for stepping further outside her comfort zone and using her voice to make a real change! Watch this space for more updates on the Care Leavers programme, and who knows, with the meaningful support of Katie and the other Ambassadors, we can help Shared Lives Plus reach their ambitious vision and support more Care Leavers like Katie to achieve their goals, dreams and aspirations making a real difference along the way! 

Find out more about our Shared Lives scheme. 

Learn more about the Care Leavers project.