How Project Unity is empowering care-experienced young mothers and breaking cycles of babies being taken into care

Although young motherhood can certainly be a positive experience for some, many care-experienced young people are affected by challenges such as trauma, accommodation and financial difficulties, and mental health challenges. Many also lack the support systems that some of their peers are able to turn to for help, such as from family members. As a result, too many care-experienced parents are encountering a cycle of care, with the state intervening with their own children – often while they are young, sometimes shortly after birth. Advocates agree that the reasons for this are complex and nuanced, but lack of wrap-around support as well as damaging social stigma surrounding care-experienced young people are contributing factors.

So far, Project Unity has worked with 500 young women and girls.  It offers support to any care-experienced young mother or pregnant woman under the age of 25. The team has met girls as young as 11. Of all the women who have accessed the service, 95% have had one child involved in care proceedings. Project Unity wants to shine a light on this shockingly high figure and work together with other organisations as well as government policymakers to reduce this through early intervention and personalised wrap-around care.

Sharon Lovell, CEO of NYAS Cymru, explains why so many care-experienced young women often struggle to engage with services. “Many young women have had negative experiences of the system, so regaining that trust is challenging. Often they’re so scared their child will be taken from them, and they don’t want their child to have the same experience they had, so this can lead to young women not wanting to interact with services.” At Project Unity, the staff take a different approach, making sure that the young women’s voices are heard and their autonomy is placed front and centre.There are a number of ways that young women can engage with the service, including through self-referal via the service’s helpline, speaking with a staff member on the phone, or arranging to meet in person if they are comfortable doing so. “What’s really important is that they’re in control,” says Sharon. “They can take the interaction at the pace they’re comfortable with. We start by communicating the woman’s rights to confidentiality and safeguarding, and we lay foundations about them being in control and them saying what they would like to ‘stop, start or change’.” Sharon explains that framing the actions through this ‘stop, start, change’ model can help to reduce feelings of overwhelm and empower women to take steps to address the issues they are facing. “There will always be something that falls into one of those categories, something that needs to stop, something that needs to start, or something that needs to change.” Their advocate will then work closely with them to take these steps.

Practically, this might mean providing one-on-one mentoring and advice, giving advice and assistance in managing benefits and budgeting, providing education and advice on healthy relationships, and providing representation and advocacy for young women navigating other systems and processes.

A young woman who received support from Project Unity explains what this support can mean, especially when it comes during an incredibly difficult time; “I was first referred to Project Unity by my social worker. At the time, I had gone through the very difficult process of having a child removed and put up for adoption. I was also pregnant again and wanted to try and appeal the adoption, but I was not in a very good place mentally or emotionally to handle everything that was happening. As soon as I got an advocate, I felt like I was in a much more secure place. She supported me through those first steps and helped me navigate a very overwhelming situation […] Because of that support I am now in a much better position to keep this baby. My advocate didn’t just see me as a case file; she helped me build a foundation so I could be a parent. Having someone on my side who listened and helped me get the right support in place made all the difference. It moved me from a place of feeling lost to a place where I felt capable of looking after my child.”

Another young woman echoes this. “The biggest thing for me is that I finally feel supported and like I have a choice in my own journey now. With other services you can feel like things are just happening to you, but having an advocate has changed that. I feel like I have someone in my corner who listens to what I want. It makes a huge difference knowing that my voice is being included in the decisions being made about my life, rather than just being told what is going to happen next.”

Project Unity started as a pilot primarily in south Wales, before being rolled out nationally across Wales in 2020 with funding from the Welsh Government. Having overcome some initial challenges posed by the pandemic, the project is now fully operational across Wales. Buy-in from other organisations and authorities has been vital, says Sharon. “Partnership work is critical. You have to have buy-in from the local authority. We have to be able to develop those relationships to work together. For example, we want local authorities to offer our service as soon as a young woman becomes pregnant. One of our areas of development we would like to see is a recommendation to advance with an active offer in mind and have the systems in place to do that from day one.”

Her advice to anyone looking to develop a similar project outside of Wales is to begin where the need is greatest, before thinking about scaling up: “As a pilot, think small, do it as a pilot in one area. Find an area with a large population of women in the care system. Don’t be afraid to go small initially – but use that and really learn from that. Collectively, learn from the experiences of young women. Systemic change is also important – give yourself time and space to develop that and co-produce it with young women.”