Participation is the heart of what we do here at Nexus Fostering. We firmly believe that every voice matters, whether they are in our care or the children of our dedicated carers. Our team's primary mission is to be a listening ear and a supportive hand, ensuring that all those under our care have a platform to express their thoughts, concerns, and aspirations. Through open communication and active engagement, we forge a strong bond of trust and respect, creating a safe space for our children to share their experiences and ideas.
But we don't stop at just listening; the Participation Team transforms these valuable insights into catalysts for positive change. Armed with a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by our children and carers, we collaborate with the wider Nexus Fostering family to effect meaningful improvements in our company's practices.
Find out about some of our projects we collaborate on with our children and young people.
At Nexus Fostering, we believe in building strong relationships from the start. Within 4-6 weeks of a child joining a Nexus foster family, our dedicated team will visit to introduce themselves. This visit allows us to put a friendly face to our Participation team and ensure that children and young people have all the information they need.
We’re proud to have a talented group of 11 young ambassadors who help shape our community. Here’s what they do:
Nexus Newsletter: Our ambassadors create and run the Nexus Newsletter, a cool quarterly magazine. They plan the content, design, and make it their own.
Children’s Guide: The ambassadors co-designed our brand-new Nexus Children’s Guide—a comic book that includes characters they’ve created, with exciting backstories.
Social Media Takeover: Each month, our ambassadors team up with our marketing team to take over our social media accounts, sharing their own stories and experiences.
At Nexus Fostering, we are committed to ensuring that all children and young people have access to the information they need in formats that work for them. Our team makes sure that our guides and documents are available in a variety of formats, including multiple languages. We are proud to offer:
WIDGIT: A tool that helps make information more accessible.
British Sign Language: Included in our videos for children and young people, ensuring they can access content easily.
We strive to meet the diverse needs of the children we work with, providing information in ways that best support them.
At Nexus Fostering, we believe every young person deserves the chance to grow, learn, and thrive. That’s why we proudly offer The Duke of Edinburgh's Award (DofE), a program that helps young people develop valuable skills and experiences for the future. Here’s how we support them:
Personalised Program: We tailor the DofE program to fit each child’s needs, ensuring they get the most out of their experience.
Full Support: Our team is trained to assist each young person in their journey, helping them overcome challenges and succeed.
Funding: We cover the cost for foster children and looked-after children to participate in the program, so they can take part without financial barriers.
By participating in DofE, our young people have the opportunity to make a real difference in their communities while developing skills that will benefit them for life.
My role is to ensure that our children and young people have voices that are heard across the agency and that they are involved in decision making processes. My vision is that our young people continue to make meaningful contributions to policy development, service delivery and have a say about what we do well at Nexus and what we could do better.
My primary goal is to advocate for the well-being of children, ensuring they feel valued and included. My role involves creating safe spaces for young people to express themselves, through initiatives like the Ambassador Programme, training development, the Children's Newsletter, and more upcoming projects.
I am helping the team with some of the administrative tasks as part of the Participation Team.
I’m Skye, the Editor of the Nexus Fostering Magazine. Alongside my editorial work, I handle various promotional projects and have recently begun delivering LGBTQ+ training for carers and staff. As a care leaver from Nexus myself, I bring firsthand understanding and experience to everything I do.
I've enjoyed my time as an Ambassador because of the friends I've made and the skills I have improved on, i.e. teamwork, co-operation, and my ability to talk about my feelings. Overall, I think being an Ambassador helps you with struggles, allows you to talk about your feelings, and allows you to get your thoughts out there! It also allows you to address things that might help other young people.
We would love to hear from you. Get in touch with us today
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