Who Cares? Scotland

Founded in 1978, we work with Care Experienced people across Scotland. We campaign for a lifetime of equality, love and respect. We work across the length and breadth of the country standing up for Scotland's most vulnerable people with experience of our care system.

www.whocaresscotland.org/ Fundraise for us

fundraising@whocaresscotland.org

01412264441

Registered charity no. SC026076

Member since June 2021

Latest News

Get into Summer

The Scottish Government has provided funding to local authorities and national partners to enable them to enhance their Summer Offer to Children and Young People over the holiday period, to help support children, young people, parents, families and carers to reconnect and boost their wellbeing after such a tough year.

As part of the Get Into Summer campaign, Who Cares? Scotland are offering a programme of activity across the country from July to September to Care Experienced young people aged 16-26. This will include local days out, picnics, BBQs, sports groups, craft groups, music clubs, football tournaments, mindfulness sessions, cookery lessons and so much more.

Please note places for these activities will be severely limited due to Covid restrictions. Where there is demand, we will look to offer alternate dates for similar activity. There will also be opportunity for smaller group activity or one-to-one time with individual workers.

What’s on where I live?

Check out our website https://www.whocaresscotland.org/get-into-summer/ for full details of what is going on in your area.

Our teams are still working on their calendars, so if you can’t find an activity near you then keep checking back to see the latest updates, and keep an eye on our social media platforms.

Make sure you also check out The Parent Club website which is signposting activities being offered by other organisations as part of the campaign.

About us

Who Cares? Scotland is a national charity in Scotland representing children, young people and adults who are currently in care or who are care leavers – we use the generic term, Care Experienced people. Our vision is for a Lifetime of Equality, Respect and Love for Care Experienced people. We are driven by the inequalities faced by children, young people and adults, due to their experience of the care system. Over 90% of children and young people are taken into care because of neglect and abuse in the family home – in other words, it’s not their fault. Their trauma is often compounded by a care system that removes them from their siblings, other relatives, friends, schools, home and neighbourhood. Children and young people who grow up in care face consistently poorer outcomes than those who don’t. It’s that simple. They are more likely to suffer poor physical or mental health; more likely to be unemployed; more likely to enter the criminal justice system, and – devastatingly – more likely to die younger than anyone else. 

Traditionally, Who Cares? Scotland’s work has three key strands:

• RIGHTS: We provide independent advocacy services for Care Experienced children and young people across Scotland.  Our relationship-based advocacy helps young people understand their rights and navigate difficult decisions in their lives.

• BELONGING: Through our Membership program, employability and participation opportunities, we bring Care Experienced children and young people together to help them feel connected to a wider Care Family, and to feel a sense of belonging. From youth work participation groups, to week-long summer camps, we bring children who are in care together and help them feel connected. Our employment programme supports Care Experienced people into employment and helps them with issues such as debt, housing and health, to make sustaining a job more manageable. As well as internal employment, we also encourage and train other employers to employ people who have experienced care.

• INFLUENCING: We share the power of the Care Experienced voice in all our policy and influencing/training activities, shaping legislation, policy and practice that affects our Members. We have influenced significant changes to care in Scotland at Scottish Government level and locally. We are the leading driver of change for Care Experienced people in Scotland.

Our vision is simple -A lifetime of equality, respect and love for all Care Experienced people.