On Wednesday September 15, members of the Alliance of Care Experienced People in Higher Education (ACEPHE) organising committee planned to meet in person for the first time in Brighton. Dee and Amy were travelling from Australia to present at EUSARF 2023. Jim and Rosie committed to a train journey from other parts of England.
Word about a CEP meeting near the university library quickly got around the conference. At least 15 care experienced delegates meet up for coffee. Others met for the first time later at the conference dinner.
The ACEPHE committee is changing as organising members move on from higher education and new members join. Jim has retired from academia and is focused on other projects and chairing the Care Leavers Association. Dee will retire from her post at The University of Adelaide at the end of the year. Amy is due to finish her PhD at the University of Sydney in a few months. Rosie will submit her PhD at the University of Southampton in a few weeks.
Based on the turnout at the library alone, there is still clearly space for maintaining a collegial network for care-experienced people working and studying in higher education. At EUSARF, many delegates with lived experience of care are presenting research on care experience throughout the life course. Several presentations specifically focused on transitions from care into adulthood in the domains of higher education and employment.
Words like ‘youth participation’, ‘co-design’, and ‘expert by experience’ are increasingly prominent in the care research lexicon. But care experienced people are not just being invited to advisory panels to validate findings, or add legitimacy or relevancy of care research to people with lived experience. We are also here at EUSARF as researchers in our own right, contributing to the discourse by collaborating, and even leading, projects.
If you are care experienced and at university and would like to join or become more involved in Alliance for Care Experienced People In HE (ACEPHE), contact us: acephe2020@gmail.com
Alliance for Care Experienced People in Higher Education 