
#KinshipCareWeek has already taken place in 2023
Kinship Care Week 2023 (2-8 October) was an opportunity to celebrate the incredible role that kinship carers play in children’s lives and society, and recognise the profound commitment and love they have for the children they care for.
This year, the theme of Kinship Care Week was #DoOneThing. The public and political profile of #KinshipCare has never been higher – but we needed to push it even further up the agenda. That’s why we asked you to #DoOneThing to raise awareness and keep kinship care in the spotlight.
How your showed your support for #KinshipCareWeek
We asked kinship carers, local authorities and all our partners and supporters to spread the word and #DoOneThing.
Some of the ideas of what you could do to raise awareness during Kinship Care Week included:
- Tell a friend about Kinship Care Week
- Share Kinship Care Week in your child’s school/work newsletter
- Write to your local paper about Kinship Care Week
- Reach out to a kinship carer
- Celebrate with a tea party with friend or with any groups that you attend
- Share information about support for kinship carers within your local community
We know how hard life can be for kinship carers which is why we also wanted you to #DoOneThing to look after yourselves this Kinship Care Week. Kinship carers were able to book onto eight self-care workshops which we ran during Kinship Care Week.
Finally, we asked you to #DoOneThing for the #ValueOurLove campaign by taking the next campaign action. To keep kinship care in the spotlight, we asked you to email David Johnston MP, the new Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing to tell him what needed to change and make sure kinship care continues to be a priority.
You kept us updated on social media
By including the hashtags #DoOneThing and #KinshipCareWeek we saw how far #KinshipCare travelled during Kinship Care Week!
You also kept us updated by tagging Kinship in your message and pictures on social media: Facebook: @kinshipcarecharity, Instagram: @kinship_charity, Twitter: @kinshipcharity
You used our digital resource packs
Kinship carers, local authorities and organisations that celebrated Kinship Care Week, used our resource packs below which were full of ideas about how you could raise awareness during #KinshipCareWeek. They also included social media graphics, flyers and much more!
Why we celebrate #KinshipCareWeek
It has been a momentous year for kinship care, with unprecedented attention from decision-makers, as the Government responded to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care and committed to writing the first ever, national kinship care strategy.
But many kinship families still feel unrecognised, undervalued, and unsupported, so raising awareness of their important role and challenges they face is crucial to building understanding and getting them the support, they so desperately need.
History of Kinship Care Week
A lack of awareness and understanding of kinship care means that kinship families remain unrecognised, undervalued, and unsupported. Raising awareness of the role and challenges kinship families face is one of the first steps to building understanding and support for kinship families. Kinship Care Week was conceived by Kinship Carers Liverpool, a charity which has always celebrated locally in October, with events and local media outreach.
- 2017: In a Reimagining Kinship Care social design workshop, kinship carers, social workers, academics, and charities came together to discuss solutions to some of the challenges faced by kinship families. They agreed that an awareness week for kinship families should become a national priority.
- 2018: Kinship (then called Grandparents Plus) joined forces with Kinship Carers Liverpool to deliver #KinshipCareWeek across England and Wales. They invited members of the Kinship Care Alliance – a group of charities committed to improving the lives of kinship families – to collaborate.
- 2020: Here’s what happened in #KinshipCareWeek2020.
- 2021: Here’s what happened in #KinshipCareWeek2021.
- 2022: Here’s what happened in #KinshipCareWeek2022.
