Sharon McPherson is co-founder of Families in Harmony, a lived experienced led organisation at the forefront of the campaign for racial justice in the kinship care sector. Here she shares her experience on the power of spokesperson training to springboard the influencing work of grassroots charities.
When I applied to the Sounddelivery Media Spokesperson Programme in May 2022, I hoped to amplify the work of my organisation, Families in Harmony, and influence the Children’s Care Social Review. Alongside my co-founder Johanna Bernard, we’d been working to bring attention to the impact of racial disparity in the kinship care community. Kinship care is where children not able to live with their parents are raised by family members or friends. Kinship carers can be a grandparent like myself, or uncles, aunts, older siblings or other adults who have a connection to the child, such as neighbours or family friends.
Alongside my co-founder Johanna Bernard, we’ve been working to bring attention to the impact of racial disparity in the kinship care community ... where children not able to live with their parents are raised by family members or friends.
I never could have imagined the roller-coaster journey that lay ahead for us. But I also never struggled to see why two Black kinship carers with a big vision and no funding shouldn't influence a first of its kind in 40-years care review. The reality was, the opportunity might not come up again in our lifetime.
Building the confidence to speak up
The Spokesperson Network programme was an eight-month training programme of workshops, mentoring and media opportunities, with ongoing support for leaders with lived experience of social inequalities. I’m quite an introverted individual, so the skills, lessons and wisdom I gained from participating in the programme helped me to overcome my fear of being visible and speaking my truth. It gave me the confidence to rise up and become the community organiser, public speaker and campaigner I am today. Now I’m encouraging and empowering other kinship carers of African and Caribbean descent to speak their truth, to reach out for help in spite of that fear of judgement or shame. Me being brave, sharing my truth is uniting people. The power of peer support is helping to see racial equity in kinship care realised, one family at a time.
As a small lived experienced-led organisation, having access to the ongoing support has provided invaluable professional advice and guidance. The sharing of opportunities to amplify our campaign asks, plus the lived experience racial equity stories of our peer support network members is priceless. Being encouraged to write blogs and opinion pieces in national publications such as Children & Young People Now and the Voice Newspaper, and having access to media interviews and public speaking events like BBC Five Live are all capacity building resources that we were unlikely to otherwise have had access to.
Me being brave, sharing my truth is uniting people. The power of peer support is helping to see racial equity in kinship care realised, one family at a time.
From influencing to impact
Families In Harmony has now grown expediently. By developing a strong social media presence, we’ve attracted co-production opportunities, and collaborated on practitioner, kinship carer and community awareness training and event opportunities.
Through the Kinship Care Alliance, we’ve amplified how African and Caribbean families experience a disproportionate lack of support due to informal kinship care arrangements. We continue to partner with Family Rights Group and CoramBAAF to raise consciousness among children’s social care practitioners on how racialised trauma impacts parenting, childhood and generational family patterns.
The Churchill Fellowship that I am currently undertaking is another example of Sounddelivery Media’s signposting to national and international opportunities that contribute to bringing new knowledge and perspectives to the forefront. As a kinship carer, like many black kinship families, I’ve been denied access to culturally appropriate assessments, services and support.
The Care Review has highlighted the issues of racial disparity in the care system and an acknowledgement there is a dearth of cultural curiosity research, including countries of heritage. My Churchill Fellowship will contribute to reducing the research dearth, but more importantly will be among the first racialised lived experience led research.
Through the Kinship Care Alliance, we’ve amplified how African and Caribbean families experience a disproportionate lack of support due to informal kinship care arrangements.
My amazing peer alumni from the spokesperson network have become cheerleaders, amplifiers and a multi-faceted source of support. A few months before the end of my programme journey, my worst kinship care nightmare was realised when one of my grandsons died. The response from the Sounddelivery Media team and network was compassion and kindness that is impossible for me to quantify in words. I now realise, when you galvanise the power of lived experience with campaigners committed to highlighting and tackling injustice, you create a formidable force for change with a capacity to shoulder the seemingly unbearable pain of others.
Why funding matters
I’m aware that financial resourcing of programmes like the spokesperson network may not sit neatly within funders criteria. However, what must be earnestly considered, is the ripple effect of my own participation on marginalised and communities. The added value of building the capacity of individuals and organisations within seldom heard communities, is that we go on to become change-makers and contribute to the building blocks of an equitable, diverse and inclusive society. I personally experienced how bringing together spokespeople from the children’s social care sector like myself, with individuals from mental health, suicide and matrescence, and other campaigning for justice groups can form an unexpected safety network.
I would like to see more funders invest in support infrastructure organisations that capacity build for lived experienced leaders and organisations. Particularly as this is a visible step forward in the diversification of grant recipients and the reimagining of who is best placed to lead in socio-economic and racial equity levelling up.
The added value of building the capacity of individuals and organisations within seldom heard communities, is that we go on to become change-makers and contribute to the building blocks of an equitable, diverse and inclusive society.