We need to talk about bin bags

The day you go into care is probably one of the worst days of your life. Being taken to a stranger’s house, not knowing if you’ll ever go back to live at your home, with nothing but a few belongings. When I went into care aged 8, I arrived with the few precious things I brought with me (a much loved teddy and some bits of plastic) in bin bags. It felt embarrassing, like they were rubbish. 

Twenty years later, I’m watching a play called [BLANK] by Clean Break, a theatre company who work with women in the criminal justice system. In one of the scenes, two children sit on either side of the stage, daring each other not to cross an imaginary line across the floor. One of the girls has just arrived at a foster placement. She has a bin bag containing her belongings. I then realised that this wasn’t just a quirk of my experience — I imagine few of the audience would have noticed this detail but just the sight of the bin bags left me with a lump in my throat.

Since starting From Care to Where, I’ve spoken to many extraordinary care leavers, several of whom have talked about the shame they felt when they first went into care. The “bin bag thing” is clearly ubiquitous. It shocks me that this is still happening to the 40,000 children entering the UK care system each year. These young people deserve better than that.

That’s where Madlug comes in - a backpack company founded by youth worker Dave Linton in 2015 that for every bag purchased, gives one to a child entering care. Each bag has a label that says “You are incredible” to remind every child that they have value, worth and dignity. They have given over 20,000 of these bags to date. So I absolutely leapt at the chance when they offered to sponsor my next series of From Care To Where. I am a big supporter of their mission and couldn’t be more thrilled to get the word out there to our listeners. 

Look out for Series 2 of From Care To Where? in May 2021 for 10 episodes of interviews with inspirational care leavers.