VOYPIC

VOYPIC is the charity for children and young people with a lived experience of care in Northern Ireland. Established in 1993 by a group of young people in care and professionals, our job is to promote the rights and voice of children in care and care leavers. We want every child in care to have a safe, stable, and positive experience of care, and to be involved in decisions about their life.

 Our work is structure in three key areas:

1. Advocacy – providing support to young people in and leaving care, ensuring their voices is heard in the decisions about their care and their rights are protected and promoted.
2. Participation – providing a safe and supported space for young people with experience of care to come together, to explore issues related to their care identity, share experiences and discuss issues that impact on them.
3. Influencing Change – young people with experience of care are the experts in how we care for children and young people in Northern Ireland. We work to ensure their expertise is heard by those making the big decisions, including those at all levels of government.

Work supported by Act for Change Fund

MyVOYPIC is our new scheme, specially designed to connect young people with lived experience of care across Northern Ireland. It’s a social community, a safe place for young people with experience of care to meet, share ideas and opinions, take action and have fun! Over time, MyVOYPIC will grow, becoming a network of care experienced activists, supporting collective activities to change attitudes to care, and inform and influence how children and young people in Northern Ireland are cared for in the future.

The Language of Care

We want to create a language of care that can be understood by people outside our world. We want to be able to chat with our friends, teachers and families about our lives, and not have to explain what the words mean. Sometimes we feel different because we are in care. We hope that in changing these words it will make things more equal, make us feel less different.

Over 150 young people with lived experience of care from across Northern Ireland have shared their views, opinions and ideas on the words and phrases that should be included. We hope it will make the language used more welcoming for young people.