Best Practice: Ben’s Story

Hi my name is Ben Taylor and I’m going to take you through my FCA journey and how I went from being a 7 Year old boy to getting to my dream job as cabin crew!!!

It all started way back in May 2009 when I got the best chance of my life to live with two of the best foster carers I will ever know Kerri and Cliff they took me in with support from the FCA and nurtured me and bought me up for over 11 years till I was 18 they took me on amazing trips all over Europe and through the United states, we still have regular contact even now I’m 20 they see me as one of their own.

This brings me nicely on to show how well FCA has also been a massive part of my life from a young age I would attend most of the activities that were local and on offer for me and if my foster carers were unable to take me FCA wouldn’t leave me behind they managed to find a way for me to be apart of the fun!! I would also attend FCA young people form meetings to discuss what we felt they could do better and what was more important is we felt listened to and you can be sure they’ll do everything in their power to make this happen as on many occasions I have seen it myself the changes they make from our ideas. They offer so much support for us young people and they are always a phone call away if we need them. Everyone in the FCA office never hides away from the young people they make you feel welcome and apart of the FCA family that’s what most important to feel like a family. When I first started FCA I joined the young forum rep meetings, and it made me feel special and that I could help voice other young people in my area and get this across to the team so they could action our concerns. Now 11years later I am a care experience consultant working alongside I would say the most dedicated hard-working team I’ve known since being a part of this FCA family. They have helped me overcome my fears and always pushed me to go forward and not back and I have gone from being 7 years old hiding under tables because I feared adults to working alongside them in the office to now also working for EasyJet serving 200+ passengers in the sky at 35,000ft. Now if this doesn’t show what dedication and hard work FCA and my incredible foster family have done for me I don’t know what will.

2022 has been an exciting year for Polaris and we are looking forward to building on this success in 2023. All our services have their own ambitious plan for the upcoming year collectively working towards our vision of revolutionising the sector, to create better lives for children and young people in care and be the number 1 full children’s services provider in the UK. We have big plans for 2023 as a Community including: