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Between Chapters is a three-year project (2025-2028) led by Blue Cabin, in partnership with Mary-anne Hodd, a care-experienced independent consultant and Therapeutic Life Story Work Practitioner-in training. Funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the project explores how life story work is currently understood, prioritised and delivered for care leavers aged 16–25, and where gaps and opportunities exist.
Here, Mary-anne Hodd shares her hopes for the project, as well as some of what the project team has learnt already about life story work for care leavers.
Young people leaving care are navigating one of the most significant transitions of their lives. A time filled with questions about identity, belonging and the future, often alongside instability and change in every aspect. Yet, for many, this transition happens without structured support to explore who they are, make sense of what has happened to them, or imagine what might come next.
Life story work is a tool that can support care experienced young people on this journey. It can help them make sense of their past, understand themselves in the present, and imagine a future with possibility.
While there are a range of established models and approaches, much of this work has historically focused on younger children. There remains a notable lack of life story work designed specifically with care leavers aged 16-25 in mind.
Between Chapters begins from the understanding that this period of transition may be one of the most formative stages of a young person’s life. A time when young people might be revisiting their stories, reinterpreting them in new ways, and asking what those stories mean for who they are becoming.
We are interested not only in the relevance and importance of life story work during these years, but also in the practical realities of how it can be delivered with care leavers. This includes exploring how life story work fits within existing local authority structures, resources and roles, and what support practitioners need to offer this work in ways that feel meaningful, ethical and sustainable.
Within this project, life story work is understood as a therapeutic and relational process. It supports children and young people to make sense of their experiences, integrate their past into a coherent narrative, and develop a stronger understanding of who they are and who they are becoming.
Although life story work has most commonly been associated with children in care and adoption, its purpose and potential extend beyond childhood, particularly during periods of transition. This understanding draws on Therapeutic Life Story Work (Rose, 2012; 2017), narrative identity theory, trauma-informed practice, and Blue Cabin’s Creative Life Story Work approach, which adapts these principles through creative and relational methods. It is also informed by emerging practice and thinking in the field of life story work, including contributions from practitioners such as Polly Baynes and Katie Wrench.
One of the early themes from conversations during year one of Between Chapters has been the lack of a shared understanding of what life story work actually means.
For some, it has traditionally referred to life story or ‘memory book’ approaches focused on recording key events or facts from case files. While these resources can be valuable, they can also become adult-led and product-focused, with meaning-making, emotional processing and relationship-building taking a back seat.
In this project, we are interested in life story work as a therapeutic and relational process, where creativity, safety, choice and co-creation support young people to explore their experiences in a way that feels relevant and led by them, rather than focused on producing a finished resource.
From our early conversations, it’s clear that life story work does not look the same for everyone, particularly as young people move into adolescence and early adulthood. Some may arrive with questions they want to explore; others may not yet know what they are seeking. Meaningful life story work for care leavers requires flexibility in pace, format and structure, rather than a fixed pathway or prescribed number of sessions.
For care leavers, this often means working with stories they already carry about themselves, what happened and what it meant. Life story work can create space to explore, question and reshape those meanings, while supporting young people to imagine who they are becoming and what they want for their future.
Between Chapters is a three-year commitment to listening, learning and influencing change.
In year one, we’re focusing on understanding what already exists. That includes listening to care experienced young people, practitioners and creatives, exploring current approaches to life story work, and paying attention to the realities of how this work is delivered within existing local authority structures and resources.
We’re interested not only in why life story work matters at this age, but in the practical questions too:
– How is it offered?
– Who holds it?
– What helps it feel meaningful?
– And what makes it harder to sustain?
Over the next two years, what we learn will shape the development of new resources, tools and guidance designed specifically with care leavers in mind.
And in the next few weeks, we’ll begin to share what we’re hearing so far, including emerging themes from year one and the questions they raise for practice.
For now, we’re grateful to everyone who has already shared their thinking, practice and reflections with us. Together, we hope to shape practice that centres care leavers, honours their stories, and supports what comes next.
Thank you Mary-anne for this introduction to Between Chapters! We’ll be sharing more as the project progresses.
If you’re interested in contributing to future conversations about life story work for care leavers, or sharing your experiences, please complete our Expression of Interest form.
