Social workers write stories every day - in their administrative records, in their correspondence with colleagues, in their records of discussions and decisions. These are often stories written about other people and their lives in the 'welfare' system. For generations community and government organisations have documented and stored such information, often controlling and mediating access for those people who have been written about.
Care-experienced people and organisations, including the Care Leavers' Australasia Network (CLAN) and the CREATE Foundation, alongside Monash University and Federation University researchers, have developed a "Charter of Lifelong Rights in Recordkeeping". The Charter outlines the principles and practices that will help make sure that records are written and accessed by the people who need them most - young people in Care and the adults they become.
Cafs Ballarat is a modern community sector organisation that was originally founded in 1866 as the Ballarat District Orphan Asylum, then the Ballarat Orphanage, Ballarat Children's Home, then Child and Family Services. Having grappled critically with its histories and responsibilities, Cafs is now in the process of implementing the Charter of Lifelong Rights to Records in its contemporary practice.
Featuring former orphanage residents, contemporary social work leaders, practitioners, archivists and historians, this panel session will highlight the opportunities, responsibilities and challenges of the long histories of institutional care. It will highlight how the Charter of Lifelong Rights provides a way forward for making sense of these challenges, and the ways in which other organisations can approach their historical responsibilities.