⬤ Churchill Fellowship 2025–26
Cultural Mentorship · Kinship Care · Identity
Exploring how communities around the world support Black and Global Majority children through belonging, culture, and long-term relationships — to shape a Cultural Mentor Framework for the UK.
CHURCHILL FELLOW 2025–26
Ghana · Atlanta · Netherlands
December 2025 – June 2026
Cultural Mentor Framework for the UK
Prestigious independent research award
ABOUT THE RESEARCH
As a Churchill Fellow, I am exploring cultural mentorship, kinship care, and identity-affirming practice for Black and Global Majority children in care.
My research focuses on how communities around the world support children through belonging, culture, and long-term relationships — learning from Ghana, Atlanta, and the Netherlands.
The insights gathered will directly shape a Cultural Mentor Framework for the UK, designed to strengthen belonging, resilience, and outcomes for children in foster care.
I believe every child deserves trusted adults who understand their cultural world — and this fellowship is my opportunity to learn from the best in the world to bring that back home.
— Rachel Cole, Churchill Fellow
RESEARCH JOURNEY
Each destination was chosen deliberately — together they offer a global picture of how culture, community and long-term relationships transform outcomes for children.
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DECEMBER 2025
Cultural Identity & Kinship Networks
Exploring extended family networks, community responsibility, and faith-based organisations that centre culture and belonging. Learning from Ghanaian social workers, kinship carers, and family support structures to shape a UK model of cultural mentorship.
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APRIL 2026
Mentorship & Long-Term Youth Support
Globally recognised for leadership in mentorship and community empowerment. Exploring how organisations design identity-affirming support for children, and how long-term culturally anchored mentoring can be embedded into the UK care system.
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JUNE 2026
Child Participation & Early Intervention
Known for progressive, child-centred social care. Exploring Dutch models of foster care and how children are empowered to have a genuine voice — to deepen the Cultural Mentor Framework for the UK.
WHERE THE RESEARCH IS TAKING PLACE
Each location was chosen for what it uniquely offers — together they build a complete, global picture of how culture and community transform outcomes for children.
THE OUTPUT
Everything I learn feeds into one practical outcome — a framework that changes how the UK cares for Black and Global Majority children.
Gathering evidence across three continents on what genuinely works for children in care.
Learning from social workers, carers, and community organisations on the ground.
Synthesising global learning into a practical, evidence-based Cultural Mentor Framework.
Delivering real change through BFCA — improving outcomes for children across the UK.
Eighteen months across Ghana, the United States and the Netherlands, set against practice here in the UK. Four systems, four sets of pressures, and one lesson that held in every one of them: children do better when culture, community and relationships are built into care rather than added on afterwards.
What follows is a summary of the findings. You can download the summary report below, or request the full report and we will email it to you.
Relationships are the mechanism, not the extra.
Children heal, trust and build identity through consistent people. Services alone do not do that work.
Community is an under-used resource.
The people and places that hold a child’s culture usually sit outside formal care planning altogether.
Cultural identity is a developmental need.
A child’s sense of who they are keeps changing as they grow, ask questions and meet difference. It needs planning for over time, not recording once.
Strengths-based practice changes what professionals see.
What a worker is trained to look for shapes what they find in a family, and therefore what they decide.
Mentoring bridges the gap between placement supply and identity need.
Where a culturally matched placement is not available, a trusted adult can still carry heritage, language and belonging for that child.
A child should not have to lose their culture to be safe.
Safeguarding is the floor, not the ceiling.
Protection should lead to lasting wellbeing, not stop at the point a child is safe.
Community is infrastructure.
Community partners need funding, defined roles and standards, not a call only when there is a crisis.
Cultural identity is a planned outcome.
Culture should be assessed, reviewed and acted on with the same seriousness as any other care outcome.
Relationships are protected assets.
Continuity should be designed into the system rather than left to individual goodwill.
Reimagining Children’s Social Care: Integrating Community, Culture and Practice. The visual summary covers the international learning, the WHOLE™ Framework, BFCA Connect, formal villages and six priority actions for commissioners.
PDF, 3 MB. No details needed.
The summary is a starting point. The full report sets out the evidence, the methodology and the recommendations in depth. Tell us where to send it and we will email it over.
GET IN TOUCH
Whether you’re a researcher, practitioner, carer, or organisation working with children — I’d love to meet, share learning, and explore how we can strengthen outcomes together.