Life Story work

Using Life Story work to gather and record information about a child or young person’s family, community and personal life journey helps them develop a confident sense of their own identity. The book also becomes a great source of information about childhood experiences and achievements.

What goes into the My Life Story Book?

The My Life Story Book needs to include a written history of the child or young person’s life, from birth to the present time. The specifics of what goes into the My Life Story Book will depend on the information available and the child’s wishes.

The My Life Story Book can include:

• photos (remember to print photos from smartphones!)
• drawings
• report cards, awards and certificates
• letters from parents and carers
• maps, postcards or pictures of significant places where the child has lived or visited
• photos of past and present family, carers, friends, pets and so on
• genogram or family tree
• religious and cultural information.

Who is responsible for Life Story work?

The caseworker is usually the person who sets up the child’s Life Story work, but it’s the carer who is responsible for the day-to-day work of helping the child or young person record their story. Carers spend more time with the child in care than anyone else, and have the greatest opportunity to collect photos and other keepsakes.

Other people who can help with Life Story work include the child or young person’s counsellor or psychologist, family and kin. These people can play different roles depending on the task. Talk to your caseworker to make sure you’re clear about who is doing the following:

• structuring the Life Story work
• preparing the child or young person for Life Story work
• collecting information
• asking them who they’d like to have work with them
• maintaining Life Story work once it’s compiled.

The child or young person is the only one who can decide who looks at their book, so please respect their right to privacy. In some situations, they may wish to keep their own circumstances and possessions private.

What you can do to support Life Story work

It’s important to encourage the child in your care to establish a My Life Story Book even if they are placed with you for a short time. This is so they can link their current placement with their future journey.

Here are some ways you can help your child maintain their My Life Story Book.

• Spend time with them at regular intervals to update their book.
• Explain that their book is confidential and that no one should look at it without their permission.
• Agree on a safe place to keep the book.
• Take photos at special events and occasions, such as birthdays and the first day at school.
• Encourage them to keep personal mementos such as letters, cards, drawings and paintings.
• Record the Life Story at the child’s pace; this may be a gradual process as they become more comfortable compiling detailed information about their families and time in care.
• Ensure the book goes with them when they leave your care.

If information about the child or young person’s baby days isn’t available, it may be useful to use general information about childhood development.

An important aspect in the life story is to acknowledge how the child or young person may have felt about difficult events in their life. It’s equally important to acknowledge the happy times they’ve had in the past.

Unhappy events, such as neglect or abandonment by parents or lack of community and family support, should not be ignored but presented in a way that the child or young person can understand. You may need to work with your caseworker to ensure these events are discussed sensitively. The story should be balanced and non-judgmental.

The most important way to help kids with their Life Story work is to listen, answer questions and provide information as requested. If you don’t know the information, ask your caseworker to fill in the details. You should allow the child or young person to guide you as they explore sensitive issues.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander My Life Story Book is given to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people who enter out-of-home care with DCJ. Children and young people can use the My Life Story Book to collect personal and cultural information.

The My Life Story Book belongs to the child or young person and only they can decide who looks at it.

The ATSI My Life Story Book

DCJ has produced a version of the downloadable My Life Story Book specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. It has been designed to help children understand their cultural identity and includes the following sections:

• ‘Who am I?’, looking at the child’s personal details such as age, colour of eyes, where they were born and favourite things
• ‘My family, my mob’, for details about their parents, siblings, clan, extended family, carer’s family and where their mob is from
• ‘My culture’, for recording flags, nation names, totems, words and role models
• ‘Things I might need when I get older’, with information about Aboriginal services, supports and networks.

Depending on their age and preferences, some may choose to use a different format, for example, a scrapbook, treasure box or video. Examples of things the child or young person in your care may also like to include:

• school photos, family photos, where they were born, where they’ve lived
• pets, holidays and special events
• copy of their birth certificate
• drawings and artwork
• letters and postcards
• family trees
• school awards and reports
• awards for activities including sport and music.

Where to go for information

Helping a child with their My Life Story Book can be fun, but collecting information can sometimes be hard. You may be able to get information from:

• the child or young person
• their parents, family and extended family
• Aboriginal workers
• caseworkers
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders
• Aboriginal organisations and community groups including the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)
• NSW Aboriginal Land Councils
• internet, libraries, books and videos
• cultural events, concerts and cultural camps.

Each child or young person is given a copy of the My Life Story Book when they enter out-of-home care. Putting together information about their cultural and religious heritage is a key part of Life Story work for kids from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. This includes details about the child or young person’s birth parents’ culture, ethnicity, religion, language and life in their country of origin. The My Life Story Book will be important for the child or young person when they become an adult, providing information about childhood experiences and achievements.

Gathering information about birth parents helps kids connect with their cultural and religious heritage. This includes information about:

• when their parents were born
• the countries, cities or villages their parents, grandparents and extended family came from, and what these places are like
• the language their parents and extended family speak
• what their parents and extended family did to earn a living
• when, why and how their parents came to Australia
• their family’s religion, religious beliefs and practices
• holidays, special events, foods and dress associated with their family’s culture or religion.

You can help kids explore, understand and strengthen their own sense of identity by gathering and recording information about:

• cultural and religious celebrations, events and activities they’ve participated in
• memories of these events and what they did
• the language they spoke at home
• things they enjoyed with their family and community including certain kinds of food, places, people or special experiences.

For children or young people born overseas, you can also help gather information about:

• the country they were born in
• how old they were when they came to Australia
• things they remember from their early childhood, such as where they lived, friends, games they played, important people in their lives
• what they liked and didn’t like about life in another country
• their experiences after they arrived in Australia.

Where to look for information

You can gather information for Life Story work from:

• the child or young person
• their parents and relatives
• community members and religious leaders
• your caseworker
• teachers
• local ethnic and cultural organisations and services (ask your local council)
• multicultural caseworkers within Family and Community Services and non-government agencies
• Multicultural NSW
• Settlement Services (Migrant Resource Centres)
• Calendar of Cultural and Religious Dates
• libraries and the internet.