Welcome
Welcome to My Story, My Way. We offer a wide range of life book templates primarily aimed at care-experienced children & young people.
All of our templates were designed collaboratively with children, their parents (foster, adopted, & biological), and care professionals. This allowed us to create a product focused around what young people feel is truly important.
In addition, we also offer a small range of life books suited to older individuals. Again, these were created together with a small group within a residential setting.
All About My Story, My Way.
Hello, I’m Hannah Louise, and I am the owner of My Story, My Way. I created our first website over 10 years ago whilst working with care-experienced young people. It was during this time that I began to grow frustrated with the overall quality of the life books I was seeing. After looking through a great number, I was left with the overwhelming feeling that they just weren’t special enough to serve their purpose; many were black & white and contained very little 'real' information.
So, I began to work collaboratively with children, their parents (foster, adopted & biological) and care professionals to create a more thoughtful template based around what young people felt was truly important, creating a life book in which quality mirrored importance.
Our fifteen LB templates are divided into three categories: Baby/ Toddler, Children & Teens. This is to reflect their changing interests & lifestyles, as well as the level of input they are able to offer the project.
Having a completed book to take with them into future placements, and beyond, can help a child build a better picture of their past and create a greater sense of self. Acknowledging the importance of a completed book, all templates intentionally do not include sections dedicated to specific milestones or events, allowing them to be completed fully for any child, at any level, without any gaps.
More recently, we have also added a small number of life book templates aimed at those 75+. Again, these were designed with a number of residents within a care setting.
Working with those who have experience of the care system, it has been especially important that we adopt a holistic, trauma-informed approach in everything we do. In addition, all group work & community events have been based around the ‘8 Dimensions of Care’ & drawing from philosopher Hegel’s views on wellbeing.
Recent Events & Products
Journaling for Care- Experienced Young People (Ages 6-25) Over the past 12 months, we have facilitated a number of small journaling groups. Journaling has consistently proven a useful tool for care-experienced individuals in exploring, expressing and understanding ‘trickier’ emotions in a way that feels less threatening.
Stories Across Time: We have been fortunate to host a number of intergenerational projects. Bringing different generations together to share knowledge, skills, experiences & stories. Whilst aiming to reduce social isolation, build meaningful relationships, and strengthen our local community.
More Than Words. We have been creating a number of group packages for local communication groups. Creating a friendly, welcoming, and supportive space for those living with aphasia and other communication difficulties to connect with others, build their confidence and enjoy meaningful conversation. Our groups offer a range of informal, enjoyable activities that are designed to support communication in a pressure-free environment. These include conversation games, storytelling, music therapy, art and creative activities.
Foster Care Resources. Our foster care resources include Pre- Placement Key Questions, Welcome to Our Home booklet, a comprehensive 90-page guide to transitioning from foster/LA care into independent living, as well as one-to-one templates and activity evaluation forms (based on 8 Dimensions of Care and CQC’s latest ‘I Statements’.