OOHC PODCASTS

Do you listen to podcasts? Podcasts have been around since 2004 with the design of iPodder - a program to download radio broadcasts to Apple iPods. For their first few years podcasts were pretty niche, with few of us listening to them.

However, not any more. According to a recent Forbes magazine article, 37% of Americans (age 12+) now listen to at least one podcast each month, with some of the most recent growth been attributed to the pandemic. There has been similar growth in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and Canada.

Podcasts (as a non-technical person I like the definition “shows that you listen to on the internet”) are now easy to find, download, listen to, and indeed produce. They can be accessed through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast.fm or Pocket Casts, as well as increasingly the second largest search engine on the internet – YouTube.

I listen to podcasts, whether for personal and/or professional learning, when I am driving, walking, doing any mundane tasks that require little concentration, or waiting for someone or something. They’re also good for those of us who want to learn without spending more time staring at screens.

While it would be stretch to say that the boom and meteoric growth of podcasts is fully reflected in out-of-home care (OOHC), it can be a very useful way for us to learn hear the perspectives of others, and be challenged: Podcasts enable:

  • the Care Experienced to directly tell their stories, in their words, and in their way

  • professionals to learn directly from the experiences of other professionals both nationally and internationally

  • experts to directly share their expertise with others beyond the limits of a research article or report.

Here are some currently available OOHC podcasts:

  • Care-leaver Thomas Mongan and advocate Peter Lane run the Care Experienced Podcast including interviews with care experience people from other countries. They are part of EPIC the advocacy organisation for young people in or leaving care in Ireland https://www.epiconline.ie/the-care-experience-podcast/

  • Another Care Experienced podcast, this time from Ontario Canada, is the Foster Care Experience Podcast, hosted by Chanice McAnuff https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy80NWI2MzAzOC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw==

  • Canadian Wolfgang Vachon has conversations with young people, parents and professionals about the child & youth social service system. Wolfgang is currently a full-time faculty member at Humber College teaching in the Child and Youth Care program https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/cyc-podcast/id1006649551

  • Joe Gibb in Scotland does a podcast on residential youth care at https://anchor.fm/scottishrcc where he interviews those in the field from Scotland and internationally

  • From the Fostering Network in the UK, All About Fostering is a monthly podcast https://www.thefosteringnetwork.org.uk/podcasts

  • While no longer producing content, the following three may also be worth looking at

 Do you know of any others that you find valuable? If so please let me know.

Foster Care, Residential CareIain Mathesonpodcast, learn, voice