Foster caring in an inner city

Joy is in her sixties, she has three children and seven grandchildren, three of which she has raised herself as a single grandparent.  One of Joy's children is a sex worker and, alongside her choice of industry, her parenting capacity has been compromised in numerous ways. Joy has stepped in each time to raise the children and guide the family.  Joy has survived cancer and, with the news of a potential return of the illness, she had to make some big decisions. Chatting with Joy has been a pleasure - she speaks from a place of deep unconditional love and understanding and I had to ask myself: how would I cope?  All the names in this story have been changed to protect the family members. 

Danny Gough is a passionate man. Music has been a huge driver in his life and he's turned his passion into a method of enabling children to dream big, with a mindset to fly. He's the founder of Class Dynamix: an initiative working with schools in the UK and USA to promote pride in their assemblies; write, perform and produce their own school anthems; and tackle pertinent issues such as anti-bullying campaigns. Danny talks us through is his journey to Class Dynamix and how it has worked magic on children aged eight to 11 on both sides of the Pond.  Class Dynamix has performed on Britain's Got Talent, Sainsbury's Christmas adverts, performed at conferneces and much more. It's difficult to not get whipped up in the excitement! www.classdynamix.com [email protected]  

Joe Chown is the Chair of the Hackney Foster Carers' Council and he's passionate about the raising the role of foster carers, so they are seen as co-parents; not just contract workers or babysitters.  He wants to give all foster carers the voice they deserve.  He's also dedicated to increasing the levels of collaboration between Childrens' Social Care, the Police and the Foster Carers' Council to ensure a far greater working relationship to benefit the whole community; especially the young people in care and the foster carers themselves. Joe can be contacted on [email protected]        

Recently Greg Fisher published a book called "Happy Hockey Dad: Tapping into what is already there". It's a book that takes a closer look at why parents of kids in any sport (not just ice hockey) can seem to lose their temper, behave inappropriately or just seem to feel the outcome of the game directly affects their own happiness and wellbeing. Does that sound like anyone you know?  Greg is a husband and father, a coach, an entrepreneur and an author. He's the CPO (Chief Potential Officer) at his business, Team Unleash Your Potential. Greg is a certified Clarity® Coach and works with athletes, parents of athletes, leaders and entrepreneurs to unleash their potential.  Greg's book 'Happy Hockey Dad' can be purchased on Amazon. He can be contacted via happyhockeydad.com        

Christian McNeill has been a coach and Three Principles Practitioner since 2012. Prior to that she was a lawyer, first as an advocate and later a tribunal judge. During her 20s she encountered some significant personal challenges, including an alcohol issue. And through this experience she became very interested in how the mind works. In 2010 she stumbled across a radically different understanding of human wellbeing called The Three Principles - she was immediately struck by the outstanding outcomes that this understanding could produce. As she says on her website, the results, in every area of human endeavour and human experience, dwarfed everything else she had come across in two decades of study. She said that being a single parent felt overwhelming but she knew her children have access to unlimited resources of resilience within them. Christian starts by guiding us to listen to ourselves first and that 'life is a thousand times more enjoyable without addiction'. In 2019 Christian and Barbara Sarah Smith collaborated to write a book: Addiction: One Cause, One Solution about addiction recovery from a 3 Principles approach. It is available here https://amzn.eu/d/gJph9d1 Connect with Chistian: https://christianmcneill.co.uk/

In this episode we meet Favour Oyelowo, a 23 year old Nigerian studying Aviation at a university in the Turkish Occupied Republic of Northern Cyprus.  Favour is following his dream to become a pilot which has meant living away from his family since he was 16 years old. He funds all his living and studying expenses by working a number of jobs.  Having not seen his parents or brothers for seven years, he often feels lonely and questions his decisions. However, when we listen to Favour we hear a wisdom beyond his years. He reminds us that, if we set our minds to it, we can achieve our dreams.     

In her 15 year career as a Transformation Coach, Elaine Wright has worked with many parents seeking to enhance their connections with their children. These parents aspire to develop more fulfilling and loving relationships, fostering an anger-free environment for their family. Elaine wrote her book 'A Guide to Anger-Free Parenting: Calm your Triggers for Emotional Wellbeing and Strong, Resilient Happyt Kids' as she had felt exhausted from mental stress and anger. Later on she saw this as a personal message to be shared. If you'd like to reach out to Elaine, here's her website. There's a Calendy link under Contact. If you'd like a copy of her book, here's the link.  

Nicola Morgan is an international speaker and bestselling author of both fiction and non-fiction for teens. The book for which she is most well-known is Blame My Brain, The Amazing Teenage Brain. She's known as 'The Teenage Brain Woman'. Together, we chat about her fascination with the teen brain and her desire to share this information as widely as possible. Her skill is sharing this neuroscience in a way which appeals to teenagers, parents, teachers and educators alike. We also chat about the revised edition, which is about to be released in mid-February 2023, and includes an additional chapter on social media and its impact on the teen brain. She says: "if we understand how our brain works, then we can start to make it work better instead of beating ourselves up about why it isn't working." Nicola can be found on www.nicolamorgan.com and on Twitter @nicolamorgan  

Andy's children have grown up now but he acutely remembers how his drinking affected the whole family. He talks about using drink to dull the feelings he was afraid of such as fear and guilt; he calls it 'the shame cycle'. By following the 12 Step recovery programme, in which he began to understand his self-centred fear, Andy now lives life one day at a time. He feels more present to the world around him, and within him, and loves the creativity which is untapped. This is an honest discussion about the parent who drank too much and the viewpoint of a child of a parent who drank too much. 

The wonderful Dicken Bettinger chats about the joy of being a grandparent; to show up, be present with warmth and common sense. This is a beautiful episode which I'm sure you'll love as much as I did recording it.  Dicken is a clinical psychologist and author, and now sits as a Director on the Board of the 3 Principles Global Community site. In this podcast he shares the universal principles of Thought, Consciousness and Mind which are most fundamental when understanding the human psychological experience.  He says to enjoy yourself and the moment you're not, recognise it is Thought-related and it'll bring you back to the present moment. Dicken's co-authored book Coming Home is a highly recommended read.  Dicken's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3CazpbTHrRLQkafGI3pozg sydney.banks.com