Lifelong Links
Lifelong Links is designed for young people in care or who have experienced care and helps to find and bring you together with people who care about you. These could be familiar faces, like family, friends or former teachers or social workers, or even relatives you haven’t met yet.
Lifelong Links can help you:
- reconnect with family members and other trusted adults in a safe way (this could be people you already know, people you haven't seen for a while, or relatives you have never met)
- learn about your family history
- provide you with supportive, stable relationships during your time in care and beyond.
You can take part in Lifelong Links if you are a young person living in care or a care leaver under 25 years old.
What is Lifelong Links and who does it support?
How Lifelong Links works
You will meet your Lifelong Links coordinator, who will:
- Learn about the people who matter to you and who you would like to build relationships with
- Help you complete activities to learn more about your background. This might include drawing a family tree, where you have lived and where you go to school.
- Try to find the people you want to have in your life, if it is safe to do so.
- Help you connect with these people
- Help plan a Lifelong Links celebrations event with you and all the people who care about you if you would like to have one.
Your Lifelong Links coordinator will keep you, your carer and your social worker or other relevant support worker updated on their progress.
You can always work at a pace which suits you; there's no pressure to continue with the programme if you don't want to. You can change your mind at any point.
How to get involved
Simply speak with your current social worker, foster carer, independent reviewing officer or personal advisor and ask them to contact the Lifelong Links service by emailing lifelonglinks@warwickshire.gov.uk.
You can also get in touch by emailing us directly yourself.
Further information
Do you work with care experienced children and young people? Or do you know someone who may benefit from the support? If so the following flyers have been produced to help explain Lifelong Links:
- Lifelong Links - for children (PDF, 1.3 MB)
- Lifelong Links - for young people (PDF, 1.1 MB)
- Lifelong Links - information for professionals (PDF, 1.3 MB)
- Supporting a young person as a Lifelong Link
Warwickshire's Family Network Service offers a range of services. Find out more about downloading our flyer (PDF, 675 KB)
Check out the video of Sandy to find out what Lifelong Links meant to him: