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Making It Alone: A study of the care experiences of young black people

	Price: £6.95	BAAF 1998 ISBN 978-1-873868-51-5

‘Well, the first thing is that you definitely lose contact with your roots a lot. You lose contact with black people…I had no contact, but my family was trying to look for me, and there was me looking for them. They thought I was lifted off the face of the earth.’

Young black people in the care system have often had to “make it alone” because they find themselves cut off from their family and their origins and without a sense of their own identity. In this study Lynda Ince examines the personal experiences of ten young black people who had been on care orders. All of them had spent part of their lives in transracial placement, most of them experienced problems with their racial identity and most of them felt unprepared for the process of leaving care.

Placing the findings of this qualitative study within the context of childcare legislation and the literature about black children leaving care, the author identifies the key issues which affected the young people she interviewed. These are strongly reinforced by the young people themselves who speak powerfully about their experiences.

Ince also examined the policies of the two local authorities which placed these young people, and highlights the need for better planning with a focus on same-race placements and better preparation for young people leaving care.

This study will be of interest to everyone involved in planning and making placements for black children. It also offers valuable insights for anyone wanting to gain a better understanding of the experiences, feelings and opinions of young black people who have been in residential institutions, foster care or placed for adoption.