At Staf’s National conference on the 17th of November we launched the next phase of the Building Relationships project and revealed the name of the resource we are creating:

The REAL Toolkit – Relationships, Empathy and Love

The toolkit will be guide for young people who are leaving care and importantly, it will also be guidance for those working in care on how to promote relationships. Our vision is that every young person in care and leaving care will have positive meaningful relationships.

We aim to achieve this by providing workers with REAL, actionable and relevant advice on how to centre their practice and organisations on relationships.

Additionally, we want to collate information for young people on leaving care in one place, to help understand what to expect and how relationships are important.

The REAL Toolkit is the culmination of 2 years of work to understand relationships and what it takes to build them. At the heart of this is the Advisory Group of young people and workers, who have guided this project with their lived experience. We've come a long way since our first Advisory Group meeting, something you can see here on our timeline.

We are inviting those interested in joining this project and steering this final phase to an information session on Thursday the 26th of November at 4.30 pm. You can reserve a spot here or by emailing [email protected]. The session is open to workers and young people and will be held on teams.

Another, more interactive, meeting will be held on the 10th of December, for those that want to be part of the REAL Advisory Group. For more information, just get in touch.

You can also join the conversation on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by following @StafRealToolkit and using the hashtag #StafRealToolkit.