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Share your story

Find out why your story is so important to Family Fund, and what we do with the stories we collect.

Your story is powerful, and can make a real difference to other families, just like yours. By sharing your story with us, you can help us to:

Make the case for more funding, so that we can help more families
Publicize our work, and spread the word about our grants and services
Share families’ lived-experience with policy-makers and others, so we can help shape better support and services

If you would like to share your family story with us, we would love to hear from you!

Contact [email protected] to let us know what grant or service you received from Family Fund, and we will send you a link to the Family Stories Library. You can record your story direct into the Library using your laptop, tablet or phone.

Alternatively, we may contact you to set up an interview with a member of our team, to collect your story by phone or online.

Providing a family story is entirely voluntary. Sharing your experiences with us (or choosing NOT to do so) will not affect or influence an application for a grant or service with Family Fund.

Where we use stories

We use stories in lots of different places, including:

On our website and social media channels (eg Facebook, Instagram)
In our newsletters and publications (eg posters, leaflets)
In our advertising (eg press ads, billboards, digital banners)
At events (both in-person and online)
In the media (for example in TV, radio, newspapers and other publications)
In communications to our staff, so they can see how their work helps families
In communications that we send to other organisations we work with, to explain and promote the work of Family Fund

We may use your story, photograph or video to help promote Family Fund Business Services, which is part of Family Fund.

Making sure we get it right

If you share your family story with via interview, we will give you an opportunity to review it, to make sure details are factually correct. After you have approved your story, the editorial context, style and tone will be managed by Family Fund.

If you share your family story with us via the Family Story Library link, the system will ask you to review your answer before you move on to the next question. If you are not happy with your answer, you can record it again. Please do not submit an answer until you are happy with it, as there is no further approval process.

Use of names in family stories

We will only use your first name, and the first names of other people you mention, in your story. We will never publish last names in any story we use, or in any accompanying photograph, video or other material.

You are responsible for making sure that anyone you mention in your family story is happy for you to share their name.

If we interview you, or ask you to send us images, we will ask for your consent to use the story/images before publication.

If you submit your family story direct to the Family Stories Library, the system will ask you for consent to use the material you record.

Your consent will last for three years following the date you gave your consent to use the story. After this time, the story and any associated images will be deleted, unless you give us permission to keep them longer.

You have the right to withdraw consent to use your family story at any time. You can do this by contacting [email protected]

Making changes

Family stories, photos or videos might need to be edited so that we can use them in different ways. However, we will always respect your story. We will not make any changes that materially alter the meaning of your story, and how you told it.
Your photos and videos might be adjusted if required. For example they may be lightened/darkened, cropped, blurred or edited in other necessary ways. Any adjustment we make will stay true to the original image. We will never make any adjustments that misrepresent the original content.
If you have any concerns about the accuracy of a family story we have published, you can ask for it to be corrected. You can do this by contacting [email protected]

Removing a story

Family Fund has legitimate interest to protect and ensure your family’s privacy and safety. If it is deemed necessary by us, we reserve the right to remove your story from publication.

Third party use

Family stories may be used by websites, social media platforms and publications that are not under our control. Family Fund is not always able to remove something from all locations once it has been published. For example, books cannot be recalled, some people will have hold of leaflets and backups of web pages are sometime inaccessible.

Because of this, when we publish something with a family story or image, we move from using consent to something called UK GDPR Article 85. This is a piece of data protection law, which acknowledges that it is not possible to remove personal information from works which have already been published. We will however stop using a family’s story or image on any new work, in line with with the change of consent. Please note that websites and social media can be seen worldwide, and UK law does not always apply.

Use of AI

We are committed to using AI transparently and responsibly. We use AI in the Family Stories Library to generate summaries of the stories families have provided. The summaries help us to search for the right stories to use for different purposes. The Family Stories Library also includes the original recorded answers and full transcripts so we are never fully reliant on the AI summaries.