Teesside woman who grew up in care on a mission to help others succeed
A new initiative's been designed to improve opportunities for young adults leaving care
A Teesside woman's sharing her story of growing up in care with a mission of helping others succeed so they don't go through what she did.
25 year-old Angelina Allen, from Stockton, lost her mum at the age of 12 and later entered the care system before leaving foster care at 17. Now, she's living independently with her dog Winnie and working full-time.
She has become a passionate advocate for care-experienced young people and is helping launch a new initiative designed to improve opportunities for young adults leaving care.
Her story comes as new figures show almost one million 16 to 24-year-olds are currently not in education, employment or training (NEET) - the highest level in a decade.
Angelina said: "It was very hard hitting and it completely changed me as a person. I went from being quite a quiet, good kid to doing probably like a 180 and I was just a completely different person. I had no purpose. I had no goal.
"I didn't want to do anything with my life. I was getting involved with the wrong type of people, drinking, smoking, you know, things that shouldn't have happened. I think the lack of guidance, not from my foster carers, but from the system itself, is what broke me. It definitely did.
"I didn't like the person I was and the person I was becoming but because I didn't have that right person to guide me, I was going down that path no matter what.
"It definitely had a lot of an impact on me growing up. getting moved, separated from my younger brother, having comments, getting heard, like things like, 'oh, there were the golden children, but now she's the broken one.' And hearing that as a child, it's just like, you know, I am here, you know, like I'm a living human being, like you don't need to speak like that of me.
"The feeling of being a case file, that was the biggest one for me growing up and that's why I think I was so defiant and so aggressive because, we'd have our meetings and the speakers if I wouldn't be there. I mean, there's so much that I could go on for hours. But yeah, the most impactful one definitely would be around my mother's death.
"I've made it kind of my own little mission, alongside my younger brother and my friend Zoe, to have kind of like a youth mentoring group that is specifically targeted for care leavers. And after speaking with, you know, a group of them, there was a lot of concerning things that were being said and it's like, you know, where's the support? Where is the guidance?
"It's scary to see how many other young people are still suffering from lack of support and guidance and it's sad really just because if it was a child not growing up within the system, a healthy household, they'd know exactly who to go to if they ever faced difficulties or problems, yet for care experienced individuals or disadvantaged individuals, it's not as simple.
"It's, 'oh, you need to go ask that person.' And then they're like, 'oh no, this is the wrong person, you need to go to this person.' So we're lost and the people that are trying to help us, they're lost because they're like, 'well, we don't know where to send you.' Which is sad. We're very confused young humans that are just wanting to be better in life. So to see that level, there's definitely change that needs to happen."
It's claimed care-experienced young people are disproportionately affected, with many facing barriers to work, housing and education after leaving the system.
The Ambitious Together Foundation (ATF) says the challenges facing young adults are stark, with most care leavers facing a cliff edge to poverty. Each year, around 10,000 young people leave the care system, while thousands more lose family support at a critical stage of life. Many face significant barriers to education, employment, housing and wellbeing.
They added more than a quarter (27%) of the adult prison population, has experienced care, and at a time when mental health referrals among young people have increased by more than 50% since 2019, and loneliness is now considered one of the top three issues affecting young people, dramatic changes are needed to support those facing hardship.
Additional figures from the Office for National Statistics find 40% of care-experienced people -including those aged 19 to 21 who are young carers for a loved one - are not in employment, education or training (Neet), compared with 12.7% those that haven’t experienced care.
To tackle the issue the charity say they plan to support 15,000 young people, particularly those who have left the care system (foster care, residential care, or state care), cared for a loved one, experienced family estrangement, suffered bereavement or other major disruptions, creating a consistent national mentoring network that helps turn ambition into long-term success.
More information can be found at the Ambitious Together website.