Life story work with refugee and asylum-seeking young people

• An insight into facilitating life story work with refugee and asylum-seeking young people
• Games and activities you can use in direct work
• Tips on working with interpreters
• Guidance on building trust across cultures

Blue Cabin, Children and Families Across Borders and Therapeutic Life Story Work International have worked together to create new resources to support life story work with refugee and asylum-seeking children and young people.

They’re designed to provide guidance in an area where very little is currently available. And ultimately, to help ensure that more refugee, asylum-seeking and unaccompanied children and young people benefit from high quality, trauma-informed life story work.

The three resources are:

1. An animation for young people, explaining what life story work is.
2. A toolkit for practitioners, including life story workers and social workers.
3. A guide for interpreters who are involved in supporting the delivery of life story work.

All the resources are free and available for anyone to access.

“I came away with a head full of new ideas”

Jenny founded Blue Cabin in 2016 – this has been one of her greatest achievements. Jenny has 20 years of experience working in both local authority and cultural sectors, with extensive knowledge and interest in care-experienced communities. She loves working alongside the Blue Cabin team to deliver the organisation’s mission.

Michael is an inter-country social worker with Children and Families Across Borders (CFAB). CFAB protects children and reunites families across borders and ensures that children who have become separated from their families across international borders are given care and protection, no matter where they come from. The support CFAB provides includes life story work for children and young people to help them process their feelings, and come to terms with their journey and current circumstances.

Nic Golightly is a graphic artist based in the North East of England. She collaborates with people from all walks of life and specialises in work with care experienced children and young people. Her work utilises the principles of graphic design – working with text, image, shape and colour. Nic produces all sorts of work, from artist books, prints, gifs to larger scale public artworks. Nic has been a Blue Cabin Associate Artist since 2018. In this time she has led Creative Life Story Work sessions both online and in person.

Paula is chair of Therapeutic Life Story Work UK, the UK branch of Therapeutic Life Story Work International (TLSWi). TLSWuk and TLSWi are a professional community delivering the Rose Model of Therapeutic Life Story Work (TLSW) – an evidence-based, transformative, creative, and collaborative approach that helps children, young people and families make sense of their story and process complex emotions. Paula has worked with children and families for many years, and as a Therapist since 2011. She specialises in TLSW and is also a Play Therapist. She wrote a chapter for Richard Rose’s book, Innovative Therapeutic Life Story Work: Developing Trauma-Informed Practice for Working with Children, Adolescents and Young Adults. She is passionate about her work with children, young people and families, and in supporting the TLSW community to thrive and deliver innovative practice.

• You will receive a zoom link to access the live classroom at least 48 hours before the live classroom takes place.
• Our Live Classrooms are delivered via Zoom. If you haven’t used Zoom before, or need a refresher, take a look at this guidance. If you are planning on attending via a work device, to ensure access is not blocked you may need to seek permission in advance.