Powerful Fostering teenagers film launched in Birmingham

Fostering services of twelve neighbouring Local Authorities, including the Birmingham Children’s Trust, have been working in collaboration to produce the film ‘There was a boy’. The film will be launched on Monday 14 May, at a premiere screening at The Everyman, Birmingham. The premiere will mark the beginning of Foster Care Fortnight, the UK’s biggest foster care recruitment campaign which runs from 14 - 25 May.

This is the third film the team has produced to promote foster care across the region and focuses on the need to offer a teenager a home. For young people this is a time in their lives which is critical in shaping the person that they will go on to become.

The story highlights a key issue in fostering: the need for more foster carers who would consider caring for teenagers.

The film conveys that despite any preconceptions about young people, with love and guidance a life can be changed for the better. It shows how foster care can impact on a boy’s future and literally change a life and how rewarding that can be for the foster carer knowing that they have made a difference.

Working together in this innovative way has resulted in each authority having an extremely high-quality production, at a low cost to each, which can be showcased and used to raise awareness for the need for more Local Authority foster carers across the regions.

Andy Couldrick, Birmingham Children’s Trust Chief Executive, said: “Our foster carers in Birmingham do a remarkable job in supporting children and young people to have the best possible opportunities in life, and we need to recruit more to support those who need our help.”

“This film helps to get across the power of foster care to help to change young people’s lives, and reinforces the urgent need we have for people to step forward who have the space to help teenagers.

“It is great to be part of such a successful collaboration to get this film produced. It’s something no single council or Trust would have the capacity to deliver.  So, the fact that we have found a way to do this through collaborative working is to the credit of all the partners involved.”

The film was launched on Monday 14 May at a premiere screening at The Everyman, Birmingham, with invited special guests including Kevin Williams from the Fostering Network, Martin Reeves, West Midlands Combined Authority Chief Executive as well as the cast, crew and foster carers from each authority.

If you are interested in Fostering in Birmingham visit our Fostering page on our website.

You can also follow us on Twitter at @bhamchildtrust and find out ’10 great reasons to Foster with us’. If you are kind enough to retweet please use the hashtags #FCF18 #ProudtoSupportFostering and #ImwiththeTrust