Edinburgh residents encouraged to join Care Day celebrations

Care Day is the world’s largest celebration of the rights of children and young people with care experience.

Those interested in taking part are invited to join celebrations by visiting and accessing webinars as well as other information at: careday.org/

The dedicated day was an opportunity to unite in celebrating the rights and resilience of care experienced children and young people, and learn about their stories and their achievements.

Tony Anderson, 25, lives in residential halls at Newbattle Abbey College and is representative of the stories that Care Day celebrates.

From an extremely young age Tony was faced with abuse from his father and as a result was removed from the family home and placed into foster care.

He was passed from pillar to post within the care system.

As a teenager he was put into the Rossie young offenders unit and following this Tony experienced homelessness as well as independent living in various forms.

He said: “I have quite high expectations of myself and so did my mum before she passed away. I knew I was capable of going into education and doing what I want to do.

“In 2019 I accessed the Hub for Success and they helped me to get into higher education through a cooking course at Edinburgh College. But I decided to make a change last summer and enroll in a one year social sciences course that lead to university.

“I’ve always had a real interest in politics having been a part of the Youth Parliament and I’m currently student ambassador at the college. When I met Nicola Sturgeon I told her I was coming for her job.

“My aim is to get into university after the summer. It is unbelievable to think that I will be in a uni classroom as statistics say I should be dead or in jail.

“Throughout my life I have overcome a number of hurdles from losing loved ones to feeling isolated but today I am surrounded by my care experienced family who are my brothers and sisters. My advice to anyone is that being care experienced doesn’t mean you aren’t worth anything. It just means you have had a different journey.”

Tony has applied to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Strathclyde, Stirling and the University of the West of Scotland for the up and coming academic year.

He stressed that none of this would have been possible were it not for the fantastic support of Newbattle Abbey College, the Hub and a variety of other organisations.

Councillor Alison Dickie, Edinburgh City Council vice Convener for education, children and families said: “I’m delighted to celebrate #CareDay2021, and the amazing care experienced young people in our city. I want to celebrate their rights, their resilience, their stories and achievements. And as someone who cares about care, I celebrate being part of this care experienced community.

“We presented our new Corporate Parenting Action Plan to full council and agreed to strengthen our role as Corporate Parents by funding an expanded team. This includes two care experienced posts, and a coordinator who will drive forward the Action Plan and encourage much more collaborative support and outcomes for young people.”

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