What is your story?

• Are a child or young person in care?
• Were you placed into care when you were younger?
• Are you a carer, a family member, or residential care worker?

Your story can help highlight why Australia's child protection and out-of-home care systems need reform.

Sharing your story provides a deeper understanding of what it's like to navigate this system, and also inspires others to share their story.

Safe sharing

This page is here to create a safe environment for sharing. It is not a live moderated forum, and stories will be uploaded after being reviewed.  We acknowledge the courage it takes to share your stories with others and thank you for your willingness to do so. Whether you are submitting a story for this page, or reading those of others, it is important to look after yourself in the process.

If you would like to submit a story, please Contact Us.

If you feel distressed or would like some support after submitting or reading a story, we encourage you to reach out to Lifeline on 13 11 14. This service is available 24 hours a day.

Lived experience projects

Here is a collection of recent projects which share the voices and experiences of children, young people and their families with the child protection and out-of-home care systems across Australia. Please reach out to us at change@centreforrelationalcare.org.au if you know of other studies or reports which would be helpful to share.

• 'Moving Cage to Cage': Final Report of the Special Inquiry into Children and Young People in Alternative Care Arrangements (2024) from the Office of the Advocate for Children and Young People NSW. This report includes the accounts of children and young people in their own words who have experienced Alternative Care Arrangements (ACAs) such as hotels, motels and other settings for emergency out-of-home care placements.
• 'Help Way Earlier!' How Australia can transform child justice to improve safety and wellbeing (2024) from the Australian Human Rights Commission. This report includes the voices of children and their families about what is needed to prevent children's contact with the child justice system.
• Out-of-Home Care and Education: Insights from Let Us Learn Webinar (2024) from the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare. This webinar shares first hand experiences of young people trying to get an education while in out-of-home care in Victoria.
• 'I was raised by a checklist' (2023) by the Queensland Family & Child Commission. This presentation shares the lived experiences of young people in residential care.
• Lived experience voices: insights into young people's transition from the child protection and youth justice system in South Australia and the intersections with homelessness (2022) from The Constellation Project. This report includes the views and experiences of young people who have transitioned from child protection and youth justice systems in South Australia, as well as practitioners within those systems.
• NSW Carer Survey Report of Findings (2022) from My Forever Family. This survey provides feedback on the views and experiences of foster carers, relative/kinship carers, guardians and adoptive parents within the out-of-home care system in NSW. Close to 1900 responses were received.
• In our own words: Systemic inquiry into the lived experience of children and young people in the Victorian out-of-home care system (2019) from the Victorian Commission for Children and Young People. The inquiry spoke with more than 200 children and young people in, or with experience of, kinship, foster and residential care in Victoria. 
• 'No voice, no opinion, nothing': Parent experiences when children are removed and placed in care (2017), a collaborative project with the University of Newcastle and Life Without Barries. This project shares the perspectives and experiences of parents in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, who had their children removed and placed in out-of-home care in the previous last five years.