Casey has been living in foster care for the majority of her life. As a young child, she was in and out of different foster homes until the age of four when she entered the care system full time. What followed has been a really difficult journey for Casey, with a huge amount of trauma no child should ever go through. Placed in a Special Guardianship through her local authority, Casey believed she'd found her forever home but at just 13, she found herself back in foster care following awful circumstances, which she shares here.

The thirteen year old Casey eventually found herself with Community Foster Care carers where she stayed for the following five years until moving on at 18. Luckily for us, Casey, has been a really active member of our community and continues to be. Not only did she get involved in our residential trips and activities, she has shared her story with foster carers, been involved in training and advising from the viewpoint of a looked after young person.

We are so grateful to have such a kind, self aware young woman working with us - a foster care agency - when she could have chosen, and would have been fully within her rights to, get as far away from 'the system' as possible. Instead, Casey has chosen to take her experiences and use them to help others, to help other children and young people who might be going through similar to know that they are not alone and that there are people out there who understand and want to help. Casey's selflessness and drive is a constant inspiration to us at Community Foster Care and we are very proud of her achievements and all the ways she continues to be involved in our charity.

To be entrusted with sharing her life story is huge and a responsibility we do not take lightly. We are thrilled to be seeing more opportunities come her way, including an upcoming BBC documentary, and have no doubt that Casey is just at the start of her journey to making big change.

Read more about Casey here - TBC
Read about Casey's welcome boxes initiative here -https://www.communityfostercare.co.uk...

Video by Hannah Reynolds