John Lewis and Liverpool City Council - a partnership with a joint purpose

Where it started

Once John Lewis released their most recent Christmas advert ‘The Beginner’, Phil from our fostering recruitment team - who is also a foster carer - made a swift move to visit John Lewis at Liverpool One to find out if there were any opportunities for collaboration. 

Our conversations with John Lewis were supportive and open from the very beginning, as their Community Liaison Coordinator, Chris Clark, showed the organisation’s commitment to supporting foster care.

We soon realised there was a clear opportunity for both organisations to work together with a shared purpose – to grow the number of foster carers in our community and provide more children and young people with loving, stable homes.

The story so far

Those conversations resulted in Liverpool City Council’s fostering team having a visible presence in the store. We had a focus week to engage with the public, including daily drop-in events in John Lewis’ cafe area and an information evening event which was held in the community room.

We had the opportunity to share artwork ‘Stand By Me’, which was created by our local children in the John Lewis cafe. This allowed us to speak to members of the public about
fostering and the stories behind the artwork

What happened next?

It was a great opportunity to speak to different audiences about fostering – to explain what fostering is and the difference it makes to children’s lives. We were pleasantly surprised at the enquiries we received following the focus week from people who had either spotted us in store or seen coverage of the week across our social media channels.

Four potential fostering households attended our information evening, where a foster carer joined us to share her success story. We also listened to one young person she looks after playing the clarinet – brilliantly! One of the attendees is currently going through the fostering assessment process and we are keeping in touch with the other attendees – if just one more person joins our fostering community, this can make an enormous difference to a child’s life.

'Building Happier Futures'

John Lewis has a long term commitment to improve the lives of children and young people who are care-experienced, beyond last year’s Christmas ad.

Working alongside an organisation who shares the same values of wanting the absolute best for children in care is something which can’t be taken for granted. We can’t wait to speak to John Lewis’ customers again during Foster Care Fortnight 2023 – a perfect time to continue the conversation around fostering and encourage them to join our community.

This is echoed by Chris, Partner & Community Liaison Coordinator at John Lewis Liverpool who says 'we are happy to support fostering in the community to support those in the care system and will carry on raising awareness. It’s such an important area and we are proud to be part of it.'