About Us & The History of KidsReunited

What we aim to achieve is to put adults, who grew up in the care system, back in touch with long lost friends from yesteryear. Many thousands of children go through the care system every year, (over 60,000 are currently in care in the UK alone today) and become very attached to each other as surrogate siblings, as most do not have any real family of their own. But here in Britain, as many who have experienced the care system know, a child can be moved at a moments notice, for one reason or another, to another home in a completely different part of the country. They never usually get the chance to keep in touch, and so, make more new friends for them to possibly be moved to another home again and never see their new friends/surrogate siblings.

The inventor of “kidsreunited” came up with the concept some 9 years ago, but due to work commitments and promotion, he put his plans aside. He himself, was brought up in the care system from the age of 9, and experienced the moving around that we mentioned above. First it was a foster home, and then it was through 4 different children’s homes in various towns and counties around the North East and North Yorkshire until the age of 16.

Then 4 years ago, (2003) he was diagnosed with cancer, and spent many months in hospital battling for his life having many operations and a lot of treatment for the disease. There was a moment when there wasn’t any hope, but he continued to battle for the sake of his young son. One of his “old” children’s homes was just down the road from the hospice and whilst he was there, an old member of staff came to visit him. This got him thinking and wondered where everyone else had gone and what they were doing now. He remembered his idea of “kidsreunited” and decided that he would now build the site if he recovered.

However, due to recovering and other disabilities, he could not work to fund such a project. Eventually in 2004 as he got fitter and better, he decided now was the time to find work and start a new life. Every job he went for was never offered to him. Many excuses were given why they would not employ him including, over qualified! Whether this was true or just an excuse remains a mystery. He then set out to become self employed on 3 other projects, but lack of funding from agencies run by the government and charities hampered all of them.

In 2006, he decided to actually apply for the funding for the site, as websites were now considered as self employment too. Alas, the same excuses from every agency were reiterated over and over again. No money left or you’re on the wrong benefit they cried. It seems that people with disabilities don’t fit the criteria for many agencies for some reason. Only one agency gave him hope. A charity agency called, SHAWTRUST. They gave him a small sum towards the site as they are limited to what they can give, but it was a start. So he decided to apply to the BBCs, “Dragon’s den” but to no avail. Then he came up with the idea of inventing his own version of “dragon’s den” by pitching to people who may want to invest in his site. Bingo, it paid off, and so, “kidsreunited” was born!

Thank you, Shawtrust, and to everyone else that helped with this project.