Fellow's Profile
Nicola Kalisperas
Fellow's Profile
Nicola Kalisperas
The First Thousand Days:Changing Futures For Babies In Care
Fellowship
- Themes
- Focus
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Prioritising Relationships in Care and Adoption as protective factors
- Countries
- Fellowship year
-
2026
- Supported by
- Locality
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London
Contact
Biography
I am a campaigner, author, and keynote speaker, championing attachment as a protective factor for children in care and beyond. Grounded in early years practice, counselling, and my lived experience of foster care and adoption, my Fellowship focuses on our most vulnerable pre-verbal babies.
As a former foster carer, I saw gaps in support for babies experiencing moves and transitions; the current systems lose sight of their needs. A baby's brain develops fastest in the first 1,000 days, a period when relationships and stability shape development. While in care, babies are experiencing profound separation trauma. Grief and distress are often misunderstood, reinforced by the misconception that babies will not remember these experiences.
Visiting the USA, Canada, and Austria, I will learn from developmental neuroscience experts and Inuit knowledge systems that emphasise relational interdependence and community care. I intend to help shape UK policy and a fully formed, trauma-responsive model with creative training that will better safeguard infant wellbeing and improve lifelong outcomes. Babies may not have words, but their brains and bodies are shaped by every experience. We can do better for them.
Disclaimer
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.
Disclaimer
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.
