Chance to tell us your stories
A creative writing competition designed to encourage children and young people who have experienced foster care and fostering families to tell their stories is being supported by Fostering North Yorkshire (FNY).
FNY is part of North Yorkshire County Council and has an impressive record of placing local children and young people in care with local foster families. More than 300 children are looked after by the county’s foster carers every year.
FNY is also a member of You Can Foster, the regional foster carer recruitment organisation behind the competition.
Called Inspiring Stories, the competition’s aim is to encourage children and young people who are in foster care across the North of England to share their experiences.
Stories submitted can be a personal account of a fostering experience or an inspirational tale that needs to be told.
Entries can be fiction, nonfiction, written or even drawn, so that all ages can engage with the competition.
The entries, across five age categories, will be judged by a panel of children’s authors and poets including screenwriter and novelist Frank Cottrell Boyce, poet Tony Walsh and children’s authors Cathy Cassidy, Livi Michael and Dan Worsley.
Children and young people with first-hand experience of foster care and families who have fostered can visit www.youcanfoster.org/ competition to find out more and submit their stories. The entries should be no longer than 800 words and the deadline is 5pm on Friday, 17 November.
For more information on becoming an accredited carer with Fostering North Yorkshire, visit www.northyorks.gov.uk/fostering or call Fostering North Yorkshire on 01609 534654.