A 21-year-old from Poole has met Her Royal Highness Princess Anne while receiving an award for public speaking.<\/p>\n
Being honoured at the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum, Rylee Dickinson, who now lives in Christchurch, talked about how she grew up in care from the age of 13.<\/p>\n
Rylee said it was an incredible experience and something she will take with her for the rest of her life. She said: \u201cAs soon as I went into care I was told that I would be moving to Derbyshire, and from there I was up and down the country every three months moving in and out of different accommodation. I joke about it now, but it was really tough.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the only relationships to survive Rylee\u2019s transition from childhood to adulthood is with her Personal Advisor at BCP Council, who continues to play a positive, influential role in her life and the successes she has gone on to achieve.<\/p>\n
Rylee has lived in several \u201cawful\u201d hostels and supported-living accommodations since leaving care, but has recently benefitted from a more positive experience in council housing back on the south coast.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy council flat is great, some of my previous accommodations have been so dark and depressing they took a toll on my mental health, but this one is far lighter and airier, giving me the space I need to grow as a person and address bad habits.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also continues to spend a significant amount of time at the 333 in Bournemouth, a facility she helped build in 2021 which provides a safe space for care-experienced young people to relax, socialise and learn.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was involved with the 333 project from the very start and took on a lead role which meant I was included in several project meetings during construction phases. Later on, the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum asked us to film a short video detailing our project. I was the only person to show interest and so wrote, recorded and narrated my own video.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shortly after her submission, Rylee\u2019s film saw the 333 shortlisted for the organisations\u2019 \u2018project of the year\u2019 award, with the then 20-year-old invited to attend the ceremony and give a 10-minute presentation detailing the standout features and successes of the project.<\/p>\n
More than 150 Care Managers from several counties were in attendance, with Rylee drawing on the skills and experience she had previously developed through speaking at other public events organised by foundations such as The Prince\u2019s Trust \u2013 founded by King Charles III.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not something I struggle with, I understand why it can unnerve some people but I don\u2019t feel that way. I feel like I\u2019ve already overcome so many obstacles in my life that public speaking isn\u2019t a daunting task in comparison.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rylee\u2019s ability to rise to the challenge of public speaking, despite some of the obstacles she has faced in her life, has now seen her claim the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum\u2019s annual \u2018Public Speaker of the Year\u2019 prize. The now 21-year-old won the award to applause from many significant individuals in the care sphere, including Her Royal Highness Princess Anne, a patron of Catch 22; the organisation which formed the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to say it\u2019s just my average Tuesday,\u201d joked Rylee, who later engaged in a discussion with the Royal about her achievements. \u201cIt was an incredible experience and something I will take with me for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has spurred me on to continue pushing forward and breaking down barriers, and my message to anyone else in care would be to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
Discussing Rylee\u2019s achievements, Councillor Richard Burton, Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People at BCP Council, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cI was impressed by Rylee ever since I first met her at the BCP Corporate Parenting Board. She is so willing to help voice the thoughts of care-experienced young people, using her time and skills to champion their cause. She is a great role model to children in care.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to personally congratulate Rylee on all of her outstanding accomplishments to date, and I\u2019m excited to see what else she will go on to achieve alongside our other talented care-experienced young people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A 21-year-old from Poole has met Her Royal Highness Princess Anne while receiving an award for public speaking.<\/p>\n
Being honoured at the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum, Rylee Dickinson, who now lives in Mudeford, talked about how she grew up in care from the age of 13.<\/p>\n
Rylee said it was an incredible experience and something she will take with her for the rest of her life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":71773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,156,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christchurch","category-news","category-poole"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.bournemouthone.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.bournemouthone.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.bournemouthone.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.bournemouthone.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.bournemouthone.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.bournemouthone.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71774,"href":"https:\/\/news.bournemouthone.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71771\/revisions\/71774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.bournemouthone.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.bournemouthone.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.bournemouthone.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.bournemouthone.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}