Voices Through the Storm:
A collaboration with BCP Council and six young people with care experience
“I like to think of the whole process of care….and the emotions that we go through as a storm and the voices through the storm are the people who are there to help you, not only to the end of the storm but through it as well and it's, they're there to support you no matter what.”
Project participant, aged 17 yrs
Between 12th and 16th February, stormbreak worked with six amazing young people with experience of the care system, to teach us about growing up in foster care, and to help us develop and build our stormbreak Together programme. Over three days we learnt about the mental health concepts of resilience, self-care, relationships, self-worth and hope and optimism from their perspective, gathering their thoughts, experiences and language in fun and creative ways. And of course, we did lots of stormbreaks together!
Lights, camera, action!
For the final two days the young people took our existing stormbreak activities and re-wrote them, crafting new scripts that contained their words, their barriers, their triumphs and their perspectives. They redesigned the activities with their own creative twists, choosing backdrops, special effects, sounds and music. And finally, they each starred in their chosen stormbreak videos, supporting each other by directing, co-starring and encouraging, and ending the week with 25 new stormbreak videos ‘in the can’. 
Along with the stormbreak activities, we also captured a piece to camera from one unaccompanied asylum seeking young person describing how her foster home had become her ‘safe haven’, and one activity video filmed in mandarin.
“We started filming and I haven’t been on camera before so this was really interesting learning about how the cameras work and which person did which job.”
“I learnt how to ‘be’ in front of a camera and not go blank. I learnt that I could do it and follow a script”
“Didn’t think I’d be able to do it. I was nervous as I didn't know anything about it, I had heard about green screens, but it was cool to actually see it. I learnt skills of writing scripts, learning them and then doing voiceovers and understanding that it didn’t matter about making mistakes as the editors could cut and put the bits together.”
“I learnt how to speak out about my feelings, as we learnt how to explain how we are feeling. Before doing stormbreak I couldn’t do this but now I can.”
“We got to choose exactly what WE wanted to film. When we go to other things like this the adults organising it always choose what we do, and we get no say. I like that you allowed us to choose literally everything, giving us that responsibility.”
“I think the video will help other children in my position to feel that they are not the only ones who are in foster care. They would think “she understands me”
“I think I learnt more social skills and how to understand people’s mental health better. I can now identify if someone is feeling a certain way.”
“I learnt how to use a microphone, how to look into the camera and how to use the video prompt to read my lines. I also felt it made me feel more confident in talking to other people.”
“I would say that stormbreak will teach them to be able to tell other people their feelings and to know that there are other children who have been through what they are going through.”
