This year, Michelle published her memoir. It’s called Bringing Truth to Light. Here, she tells us more about raising awareness and fighting for change.
In June, my book Bringing Truth to Light was published. Writing the book was an emotional experience, but it was important for me to get my message out there. I wanted to raise awareness about the impact of abuse, fight for change and send a message of hope to other survivors.
Though my book covers my time in residential care, I thought it was important to also talk about my earlier life. People often experience traumatic events before they enter the care system, not just during it. By sharing my experiences, I hope to really challenge systems, services and people to do better.
When I disclosed abuse, I either wasn’t believed. Often, we were labelled simply as ‘attention-seekers’. Many times, people didn’t do the right thing. So I thought the consequences would be worse if I did speak up. With my book, I really want to call on adults to listen to children, ask how they are, give them a safe space where they can share and – crucially – believe what they say.
By stepping in and taking action, adults can make a life-changing difference. We need to create legislation where we can empower services to act immediately. When children are protected and given help earlier on, their adult lives can be so much better. I’d been seen as a ‘problem’ when I just needed safety and support. If I’d been listened to and helped, I could have been more stable and done more things.
I have a fire in my belly and I was determined to show my worth. But sometimes you need other people to see your potential. Once someone gave me a chance, I knew I’d shine. I’ve gone on to do courses and get into work. At my job, I’m given thanks and appreciation. I cry when I get this because I am grateful but also because I always knew I deserved it. When I was younger, I wasn’t acknowledged.
Now, I want to be an ambassador for survivors. The scars might stay, but you can learn to live with them. Don’t give up, keep fighting for justice and get the support that’s right for you. I want services to listen too: protect, listen and believe children. Everyone needs the chance to have a life.
When you get the opportunity, you can change paths. I’m now working on a new book and this one is completely different. It’s a war-time romance. And, like my writing, my life is going into a new chapter too.
Bringing Truth to Light
Michelle’s book is available on Amazon. It is a powerful memoir about breaking free from the past and reclaiming your voice – no matter how long it takes.
Jo was one of our first members of the Alliance Leadership Team. She highlights the determination of people with lived experience to speak out and fight for change, and how this created key changes in justice, acknowledgement and support.
In 1956 I was boarded-out from a children’s home with my younger siblings, to a guardian in the north-east of Scotland. After 10 years of physical and mental abuse, I left for Aberdeen to train as a nurse. I was so distraught at having to leave them behind that I wrote to Glasgow Cooperation to report the extent of the abuse but was not believed. My siblings’ lives were now destroyed, and there was no help available to adapt to life beyond the care system or to heal the mental health difficulties linked to their childhood abuse. This eventually led to my sister’s fatal overdose in 1993.
From that moment onwards I knew that I had to do everything in my power to change that.
After reading Tom Shaw’s Systemic Review of historical abuse in Residential Schools and Children’s Homes 1950-1995, I noticed that there was no mention of the boarded-out generation. I know this is just terminology at its best, but I was determined to find a way to bring this into the public domain, so I wrote to the Scottish Parliament. We deserved to be recognised alongside foster care.
I took it a step further by writing a book called Say Nothing, detailing my family’s experience and found a publisher in 2012. But that was not enough.
It was not until I began posting poetry online, did I come across a man who inquired about the subject matter in my poems, and he invited me to Glasgow in 2015 to attend several survivors’ meetings run by representatives from the Scottish Parliament and Professor Kendrick from CELCIS at Strathclyde University. It was then that I became aware of Time to be Heard, a pilot forum for historical child abuse which had been set up in 2009. It allowed individuals to share personal testimonies before a panel in a safe environment, laying down the groundwork for subsequent national support and inquiry structures which eventually led to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.
The door was now open.
I was invited to an interview for the Alliance Leadership Team who met in Glasgow and, after my CV was approved, I joined several other survivors and potential Delivery Partners. The main aim was to set up services for people who were abused while children in care of the state in Scotland, to provide a safe place to be heard and most importantly to be believed, resulting in the creation of Future Pathways.
This was the place I needed to be but, after a time, it became too much for me. Being in the company of other survivors and listening to their stories, made me realise that I wasn’t OK. My past trauma was coming to the surface and I needed to look after myself and get support.
Future Pathways went on to create a unique system where services along with Delivery Partners are tailored so that everyone can access the support that is right for them, all trauma-informed. Providing urgent assistance, how to access records, help survivors re-enter education (which many abused children did not get the chance to complete); to open career opportunities once beyond their reach, encourage hobbies to improve their mental health, to obtain a safe environment and help to apply for grants. Users were encouraged to join workshops and attend peer support meetings on their journey to heal from past trauma.
After encouragement from Future Pathways, I joined the Interaction Action Review Group, again with Scottish Government, Professor Kendrick and other representatives from INCAS, Quarries Home, Independent Survivors and Social Services to campaign for a Bill for Redress. As an Independent, I was able to stand for the boarded-out generation at last. In 2019, we attended Parliament to hear the First Minister announce the Redress Bill for Scotland had been passed and the most important word in that document for me was ‘boarded-out’.
My journey was complete.
Since then, I have continued to keep in touch with Future Pathways through their monthly newsletters and attend Peer Support workshops. The confidence and strength they gave me at the beginning allowed me to go on and help other survivors to pass on their experience to relatives by presenting their stories in booklet form. This enabled their truths to be known without causing further distress.
It’s nearly ten years since Future Pathways pointed me in the right direction and, without their encouragement, I would not have achieved what I set out to do.
Find out more
Say Nothing by Josephine Duthie
Josephine’s memoir covers her time when she and her siblings were boarded out to a small croft in the north-east of Scotland. There, they experienced physical and mental abuse. Say Nothing was written as a voice of support for all abused children who are afraid or were never given the chance to tell their story.
Historical Abuse Systemic Review
Tom Shaw’s report was the direct outcome of a debate in the Scottish Parliament, seeking an inquiry into past institutional child abuse. Independently appointed, Tom Shaw was to look at the systems of laws, rules and regulations that governed residential schools and children’s homes in Scotland between 1950 and 1995. The review highlighted the range of people’s needs resulting from their experience of abuse and neglect in residential child care.
Time to be Heard
In 2010, the Time to Be Heard Forum was launched by Scottish Government. The aim was to listen and validate survivors’ experiences, create a historical record, signpost to services available and test out a confidential committee model. The forum heard from 98 former residents of Quarriers (which, before 1983, was the largest children’s home in Scotland), with the aim of making recommendations on the wider rollout of such a forum.
A year later, the Time to be Heard report was published. The report firmly advocated for a forum which was inclusive of a range of experience of provision, such as being ‘boarded out’, residential provision for children with special needs, hospital provision for children with acute medical and mental health needs, detention centres and other youth justice provision and boarding departments of schools.
Alliance Leadership Team
Future Pathways is delivered by the In Care Survivors Alliance. The Alliance is made up of four organisations. These are: Glasgow Psychological Trauma Service (NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde), Health in Mind, Penumbra Mental Health and the Scottish Government. Staff members from each of these organisations are on the Alliance Leadership Team which runs Future Pathways. The team also includes people who have been supported by Future Pathways.
Interaction Action Review Group
In 2012, the Scottish Human Rights Commission commissioned CELCIS to deliver the ‘InterAction’ project. The project aimed to agree and coordinate how to implement the recommendations from the Human Rights Framework for Justice and Remedies for Historic Child Abuse.
To do this, CELCIS created a series of meetings and events called ‘interactions’ between 2012 and 2014. These activities brought together, for the first time, people with lived experience of abuse and neglect in care, child care service providers from local authorities, the third sector and religious orders, Scottish Government and others.
Scotland’s Redress Scheme
In December 2021, Scotland’s Redress Scheme was launched. This offers financial and non-financial redress to people who experienced abuse or neglect as children in the Scottish care system.
Redress Support Service
Redress Support Service offers emotional and practical support to people accessing the scheme. Delivered by the In Care Survivors Alliance, the Redress Support Service offers personalised support to people throughout their redress journey. This includes supporting people to prepare for applying, during the application and after they have applied.
Rikki is a member of our lived experience group, Voices for a Better Future. He also took part in Caring Scotland, a creative oral history project from National Theatre of Scotland. The project documents the lives and experiences of at least 100 members of the care experienced community in Scotland. Here, Rikki reflects on taking part.
Voices For A Better Future is 4 years old. We’re a group of survivors who were abused by the Scottish care system. My time with Future Pathways is almost 10 years. Future Pathways was the signpost that I found and I raised a hand and asked for help and the rest is how a tapestry comes together. We were destined to come together.
I was interviewed for the One Hundred Voices project way back in February and March 2025. Karen Allan, the producer with The National Theatre Of Scotland, thought, ‘I want to put Rikki’s story forward for the One Hundred Voices at the Scottish Parliament’.
And the weird world of Rikki begin to sow seeds to bring everything together. There’s no magic or trickery, it’s a burning love in a man to bring memoirs and tales together with the possibility of bringing light to peoples heart’s.
I’m going to Edinburgh for 3 days because I have a Voices for a Better Future meeting coming up on 11 August. Travelling the same day would break me, so I’m going up the day before.
I will be going to One Hundred Voices at the Scottish Parliament on 13 August. It matters because my voice and story will be kept for millions of people coming behind me. I want things to change for the better.
The reason I’m writing this is to help others live a light life again. The only way to close that can of worms is to open it, pour it out, and get it out without fear or anger. Let the tears and the rain wash it down the drain.
Find out more
One Hundred Voices
One Hundred Voices is an interactive, audio-guided installation, bringing creative insight into living in the care system. It serves as an artistic act of recognition and celebration of the one hundred testimonies recorded through the Caring Scotland project.
The One Hundred Voices installation opens at the Scottish Parliament on 12 August 2026, before touring to Glasgow, Dumfries, Stranraer, Forfar and Glenrothes.
Caring Scotland is delivered by National Theatre of Scotland in partnership with Who Cares? Scotland and the National Library of Scotland. It was funded with an award from The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Voices for a Better Future
Voices for a Better Future is a lived experience voice group. The group brings together people who are, or have been, supported by Future Pathways. Members of the group want to make a difference for others with experience in care.
In May 2026, Voices for a Better Future reached their 4-year mark. They have helped to shape services and advocate for change, all while supporting each other in their own personal journeys. Here, members reflect on what the group means to them.