To mark Care Experienced Week, Our Hearings, Our Voice Board Member Achilles (Dame Marsha Ducky) has written a beautiful poem called What I Need which they would love to share with other young people…
I need support, like a scaffold for my home
Even though I seem okay I’m in the background alone
To get any help I am made to feel I need to kick off every so often
There’s 40 different things in my head but all they see is anger
Please step into my shoes, I need you as my anchor
It feels like no part of care is designed to make me feel normal
To even have emotion I need to send in a form
I could write 1000 words about the support I need
But if there’s no humanity, they just think it’s greed
My experiences have shaped me, like yours would have too
But the stigma they have put on me I will not let follow through
People may say that I’m “just like damaged goods”
“In the care system” – it’s like being lost in the woods
I can make a life for myself, I promise that I can
But support from the system and the public go hand in hand.