Elevating how services approach cultural connections with children
Cultural Life Story Work
Life Story Work is a fundamental activity for out-of-home care practitioners and carers which maintains records of a child’s experiences and activities while they are in care.
It is a human need to know our past, how it links to the present and where we fit in. For children from culturally diverse backgrounds in care, ensuring they have information about their family’s history and culture, as well as details about their care circumstances, is a core responsibility for carers and practitioners.
CulturalWork’s cultural life story work resources offer guidance for practitioners and carers to develop skills and confidence in approaching life story work with children and families from culturally diverse backgrounds. It guides thinking, preparing for and having conversations about a family’s history, heritage, country of origin, traditions, religion, and settlement journeys.
CulturalWorks cultural life story work learning material and training guides facilitate practitioners and carers develop cultural awareness and culturally responsive skills.
While, it is the child’s choice when and if they choose to consider cultural information, it is the practitioner’s responsibility to keep information current and available to assist the child with such choices. CulturalWorks resources provide guidance to manage challenges for carers and practitioners and navigate processes to keep journaling culturally related information so that it is available, should or when the child chooses to reconnect with their culture.
CulturalWorks practice tools provide prompts to assist practitioners and carers consider all aspects of a child’s history and culture including:
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age, development and functioning level
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impact of trauma, their emotions, language and responsiveness
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attachments, their sense of safety and trust.
CulturalWork’s life story work resources contribute to building practitioner’s and carer’s cultural awareness and encourages thinking about developing cultural humility to explore and seek to understand the child’s and family’s culturally related beliefs, practices and languages.
