HUNDREDS of people with experience of the Scottish care system are to join together for the first ever Love Rally.
Organised by charity Who Cares? Scotland, today’s event will see people who have grown up in care “take to the streets, demand recognition and ask to be loved”.
They will be joined by Paisley and Renfrewshire South MP Mhairi Black and care-experienced people from all over the world as a campaign “for the right to be loved” begins.
That campaign aims to create change both within the system and throughout wider society.
Duncan Dunlop, chief executive officer of Who Cares? Scotland, said: “This will be a historic moment. Never has the care community and friends claimed the public space.
“We are demanding that the discrimination they suffer on a daily basis ends, that their right to be loved finally becomes a reality.
“This is not an angry march, but a positive celebration for all care-experienced people of all ages and stages.
“Across Scotland, communities campaign against care-experienced people moving into their community.
“We aim to change that negative attitude through a public demonstration of positivity and love towards care-experienced people.”
According to Kevin Browne-MacLeod of Who Cares? Scotland – which carries out national advocacy work on behalf of those who are or have been looked-after – the organisation’s 2000-plus members say that the sense of love, which is crucial to development, is missing from the
system.
He went on: “The stigma that is attached to being in care has resulted in care-experienced people being ashamed and silenced.
“Care-experienced people now feel proud and have organised this rally to tell people they deserve to be loved. I am excited for the inspirational words, songs and speeches.”
The event begins at St Enoch Square in central Glasgow at noon before proceeding along some of the city’s busiest streets to reach Buchanan Street.
It will end at the steps of the Royal Concert Hall.
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