2022 was an ambitious year
The birth of My Family Group
In March 2022 we combined Muslim Foster Network, My Adoption Family UK, My Foster Family UK and Arise Refugees under one organisation – My Family Group, and strengthened our support for Muslim adopters, foster carers and Muslim children in care.
Celebrating 5 years of service
We celebrated our fifth year anniversary, we looked back at our emergence as the Muslim Fostering Project – launched by Mercy Mission UK & Better Community Business Network & The Fostering Network. We thank everyone who was there from the start including Sir Martin Narey DL, Lord Alf Dubbs, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, MP Naz Shah, Sabah Gilani OBE, Kathy Evans from Children England & Kevin Williams from The Fostering Network.
Training to support carers and children in care
Throughout 2022 we delivered a record number of training and development sessions. This included for both the fostering & adoption sector and on various topics including faith & cultural awareness, using our toolkits and celebrating with your foster child.
We also launched an adoption buddy service in 2022 and a social worker reflective space programme, which is a year long programme for adoption sector social workers and lead by Dr Rachel Abedi. For more information about these please visit https://myadoptionfamily.org.uk/
Launching our first Roundtable Report
Following our Roundtable Discussion in April, we launched our first report for Muslim-heritage children in care in November with calls to action for the children care sector as well as the Muslim community. Forwarded by Naz Shah MP the report is the first of its kind to highlight the plight of Muslim-heritage children in the UK care sector and put forward a number of calls to action to support these children.
Holding our first Iftar event for UASCs
Working closely with our partners in Brighton and Hove, the Brighton and Hove Fostering Team and The Brighton and Hove Muslim Forum, we held an Iftar at the ‘A Taste of Sahara’ restaurant in the city. It was a wonderful and touching event for everyone who joined in the fast for today and partook in the breaking of the fast meal.
Hosting a delegation from the Malaysian Government
In November 2022, together with Kaushar Tai, the chair of our Advisory Board for Muslim Children in Care, we were honoured to host a delegation from the Malaysian Government who were looking at models of social care and wanted to take back ideas to better their children’s care systems in Malaysia. They were exceptionally impressed with our focus on getting every child into a family with parental care and they presented us with a gift of appreciation.
Helping Muslim children in care celebrate Eid
Over the course of the year we partnered up with Living Islam and Learning Roots to provide quality Gift Boxes for carers with Muslim Heritage Children in Care. By the end of 2022 we had delivered more than 2000 gift boxes to these families and hope to continue supporting these families help their children celebrate special occasions like Eid even if they are away from their communities.
My Family Group in the media
2022 has been a tremendous year for us in the media. We featured on British Muslim Heritage TV, Islam Channel, Eman Channel and Iqra TV. We were also on BBC Radio Leeds, Fever FM Leeds, Inspire FM Luton and even joined a radio event in South Africa where we spoke about the work that was happening here in the care sector in the UK and what was going on there in South Africa.
Our CEO received an honour for his services
We were over the moon when we received news that Shadim Hussain our CEO would be receiving an MBE honour for his services to the care sector and equality. Shadim has worked tirelessly to bring better outcomes for children in the care sector and has been a government advisor for a number of years now. In October 2021 he joined MP Will Quince at 10 Downing Street on our launch of the Adoption and Muslims in England Toolkits.
What’s new in 2023?
We will be formally launching our ‘Change a Life’ campaign
We will be formally launching our ‘Change a Life’ Campaign that we introduced in November 2022.
This is a call to organisations in the children care sector & those in the Muslim community, here in the UK to join hands with us and make a joint stand on issues that adversely affect Muslim-Heritage Children in Care.
To find out more and read our report visit us at https://myfamilygroup.org.uk/events/annual-roundtable-event-on-muslim-heritage-children-in-care/
The launch of our Club 50 membership programme
We have supported over 50,000 Muslim families in their journey to fostering. We have directly connected over 5,000 Muslim families with care agencies to continue their journey and have directly recruited over 50 Muslim families to care for vulnerable children.
We’re now looking for 50 businesses that will join hands and work with us to champion the needs of children in care.
To find out more about becoming a Club 50 member visit our website: https://myfamilygroup.org.uk/club50/
