A FORMER hostage is to explain what home and a sense of belonging mean to him.

TV producer John McCarthy, kidnapped by Arab fundamentalists on his first foreign assignment to Beirut in April 1986, was held hostage for five years.

He will open his heart in a key speech at a conference being held at the University of Teesside, Middlesbrough.

The conference entitled A Place to Call Home: Rethinking Connections between People, Households, Neighbourhoods, Communities and Cities, is being held on July 19 and July 20.

The conference host is the university's Social Futures Institute, which brings together more than 50 specialist researchers connected with the North-East's social and cultural wellbeing and economic prosperity.

Institute director Dr Tony Chapman said: "The conference will attract a wide range of delegates including policy makers, practitioners in all areas of community life and neighbourhood renewal, and academics from across the UK.

"It will explore the connections between home and community, home and family, home and a sense of self identity. We will debate key issues such as homelessness and migration, the experience of home amongst children, young people and older people, and the importance of understanding the diverse nature of our culture and community."

National journalist Polly Toynbee will deliver a lecture and the conference will premier a new film made by the children of asylum seekers in the Tees Valley.