Siblings Together

www.siblingstogether.co.uk

Siblings Together is an exciting and innovative programme, created specifically for young people in care, kinship and adoption. Sibling Together holiday camps safely reunite siblings whose lives are affected by care and adoption. Through the use of holiday activity camps and year-round events they bring together siblings aged 8 -18 who live in separate homes, providing a week-long holiday camp experience, organised and facilitated by highly experienced trained staff teams and CRB checked volunteers from backgrounds in the arts and health, art therapy and social work courses across the UK.Our camps recognise the fundamental need to encourage and support highly positive and memorable contact experiences within a neutral, accepting, healthy and creative environment, a place where young people can begin to build upon, value and maintain essential lifelong relationships with their brothers and sisters.

When children are unable to live together, it’s vital that they have opportunities to strengthen essential bonds with one another. We offer an opportunity for siblings to share positive experiences together, to nurture and rebuild important relationships, sometimes after having grown apart for various reasons, perhaps beyond their control. They may make friends with others in similar circumstances, experiencing an exciting holiday together and taking part in activities and creative group work.

Professional Opinions

Siblings Together have received many messages of support. Professor Sonia Jackson said, ”Losing touch with your brothers and sisters is one of the worst things that can happen as a result of coming into care. For most of us our relationship with siblings is the longest in our lives and a source of comfort and support in times of trouble. Siblings Together is a wonderfully imaginative scheme which puts separated young people back in contact with each other in the context of highly enjoyable activities”.

Dr Roger Morgan, Children’s Rights Director, said, “The unnecessary separation of brothers and sisters in care is a major problem for many children and young people, and many of them have raised this issue with me and my colleagues. In the light of what children have said, I welcome all initiatives, such as camps, that offer siblings opportunities to make and renew contact and develop their relationships with each other”.

Janet Rich, National Care Association, Care Leavers Foundation, said, “Separation from parents is a necessary evil to protect children who come into care from harm. Separation from siblings usually happens casually, thoughtlessly, through drift and lack of priority rather than by plan or intention. Siblings are an intrinsic part of our growing selves and the benefits to children in care of being supported to maintain healthy, normal sibling relationships (as opposed to ‘contact’ which is far from normal) is something that is shamefully neglected in our current system. We can do much better and the Siblings Together camps offer an exciting opportunity to act now and begin to address this issue.”

Dr McParlin said, “It is often stated in that in looking after children in state care it is much preferred to keep siblings together in residential placements. However, the reality is that often this is not possible. Children often gain in their resilience by keeping contact with their siblings, brothers and sisters that are able to go through the journey of life with them”.

Professor Mike Stein, York University, said, “Siblings Together is an important initiative. It is also one which needs to be set in the wider context of promoting positive family, kin and kinship networks for vulnerable and looked after children and young people. However, what often can be overlooked in promoting these networks – in policy, practice and research – is a sibling perspective”.

The Camps

Our holiday camps offer siblings an opportunity to experience all normal daily activities with their brothers and sisters which they might do if living in one home. The programmes include drama, art, gorge walking, and camp fires.

Our camps are unique in that they involve photographic and life story work, where children and young people create albums and scrapbooks with us, so that they can take them away, reflect upon their experiences, and keep them and share them forever.

We work closely with social workers and carers who refer children to our holiday initiative. We are happy to visit social work teams to discuss our camps, as we aim to offer an important resource for children’s services across the UK. We believe that the benefits of our services are far-reaching for children in need and, having pioneered this programme, Siblings Together would be happy to assist services in creating local camps, where we would work in partnership for the benefit and wellbeing of siblings.

All of our programmes and services are guided by, and with complete support of, those who have previously used care services. We work in partnership with a wide range of organisations, including those representing care leavers, such as A National Voice, and those concerned for children’s right to sibling contact.

Holiday camps are held in the Summer, Autumn and Winter and during Spring half-term. The next camp is from 26 July to 1 August, in North Wales.

‘Siblings Together Holiday Camp’
To secure place book now; Further details on our website
Next Camp; July 26-1st August 09′
www.siblingstogether.co.uk

 

[email protected]

Mobile 07899892745 Tel 0207-231-6925

References

Mullender, A. (ed.) We Are Family: Sibling Relationships in Placement and Beyond, London: British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering