Omar Mohamed: Black children and young people in care
Omar Mohamed: Black children and young people in care
Author
A decision to spend his Saturday at a conference proved significant for social worker Omar Mohamed. Because not only did this open his perspective, but his subsequent Churchill Fellowship learning has the potential to improve the experiences of Black children and young people in care across the UK.
It was a Black Care Experience conference, run by its founder Judith Denton, which ignited Omar’s passion for change.
Omar, who is also a lecturer and researcher in social work, has lived experience of the child welfare system. A British Asian, of Persian, East African, and Indian heritage, he was raised by kinship carers and is now carer for his teenage sister.
“As someone who is not Black, I recognise the need for working with the Black community. The significant experiences of disparity – which resonate with my own experiences – as well as the inspiration from Judith, fuelled my passion to focus on Black children in care, who have a very unique care experience. They may have to navigate having White or Brown foster carers who may not know fully how to meet their hair, skin, identity, or cultural needs. They will be asking, ‘who am I, where am I from, what’s the culture of where I come from?’ And we need to work out how to protect them from racism in the system and how this is addressed.”
Learning from the American care system
For his Fellowship, Omar travelled to the USA, spending six weeks in Philadelphia, which has a majority Black population, and where the welfare and care system reflect the demographic.
“I was really interested in what the child welfare system looks like in a predominantly Black society. I wanted to stick to participatory action research methods, so I didn’t really know what the Fellowship was going to look like until I was there. I wanted to be flexible.”
The organisations Omar spent time with were familiar with researchers visiting and asking questions. They decided to create something different, so together they came up with the idea that they would collaborate to make a documentary.
“I had great conversations with lots of people and organisations – children in care, social workers, directors, and senior managers. And I expanded this to include teachers, lawyers, policy advocates, even people who had presented at the United Nations.”
“While I had a lot to say personally about this topic, my learning taught me that the best route was to platform the voices already doing this important work, and that I can be a facilitator."
Putting learning into practice
Back in the UK, Omar – who had never made a film before – set about editing hours of footage captured on his phone. The result was the documentary ‘Towards Brotherly Love: Stories of Care, Catastrophe and Change’, which is already making waves.
The film was launched in London, in front of an audience including representatives from the Department for Education, CEOs from different charities, social workers, and people with lived experience. A second screening has taken place in Cardiff, and there are plans for future screenings. Each showing is followed by a Q&A session with a panel. Omar has also received funding from the Churchill Fellowship to go back to Philadelphia to show the film.
“My hope it that is this will have the butterfly effect. While I had a lot to say personally about this topic, my learning taught me that the best route was to platform the voices already doing this important work, and that I can be a facilitator for this.
“The voices are massively strong in the documentary, and I hope it will inspire people into doing the actions that are passionately talked about.”
It was a Black Care Experience conference, run by its founder Judith Denton, which ignited Omar’s passion for change.
Omar, who is also a lecturer and researcher in social work, has lived experience of the child welfare system. A British Asian, of Persian, East African, and Indian heritage, he was raised by kinship carers and is now carer for his teenage sister.
“As someone who is not Black, I recognise the need for working with the Black community. The significant experiences of disparity – which resonate with my own experiences – as well as the inspiration from Judith, fuelled my passion to focus on Black children in care, who have a very unique care experience. They may have to navigate having White or Brown foster carers who may not know fully how to meet their hair, skin, identity, or cultural needs. They will be asking, ‘who am I, where am I from, what’s the culture of where I come from?’ And we need to work out how to protect them from racism in the system and how this is addressed.”
Learning from the American care system
For his Fellowship, Omar travelled to the USA, spending six weeks in Philadelphia, which has a majority Black population, and where the welfare and care system reflect the demographic.
“I was really interested in what the child welfare system looks like in a predominantly Black society. I wanted to stick to participatory action research methods, so I didn’t really know what the Fellowship was going to look like until I was there. I wanted to be flexible.”
The organisations Omar spent time with were familiar with researchers visiting and asking questions. They decided to create something different, so together they came up with the idea that they would collaborate to make a documentary.
“I had great conversations with lots of people and organisations – children in care, social workers, directors, and senior managers. And I expanded this to include teachers, lawyers, policy advocates, even people who had presented at the United Nations.”
“While I had a lot to say personally about this topic, my learning taught me that the best route was to platform the voices already doing this important work, and that I can be a facilitator."
Putting learning into practice
Back in the UK, Omar – who had never made a film before – set about editing hours of footage captured on his phone. The result was the documentary ‘Towards Brotherly Love: Stories of Care, Catastrophe and Change’, which is already making waves.
The film was launched in London, in front of an audience including representatives from the Department for Education, CEOs from different charities, social workers, and people with lived experience. A second screening has taken place in Cardiff, and there are plans for future screenings. Each showing is followed by a Q&A session with a panel. Omar has also received funding from the Churchill Fellowship to go back to Philadelphia to show the film.
“My hope it that is this will have the butterfly effect. While I had a lot to say personally about this topic, my learning taught me that the best route was to platform the voices already doing this important work, and that I can be a facilitator for this.
“The voices are massively strong in the documentary, and I hope it will inspire people into doing the actions that are passionately talked about.”