Each year Carers Trust organises Young Carers Awareness Day. The purpose of the day is to raise public awareness of the challenges faced by young people because of their caring role, and to campaign for greater support for young carers and their needs.
This year, the theme was mental health as being a young carer is a risk factor for the mental health of children and young people.
Instead of simply devoting one day to raising public awareness of young carers, we have dedicated an entire week this year. We started the week by taking over 100 young carers aged between 5-14 years to Water Lane Leisure Centre for a fun-filled day of activities all designed to support mental wellbeing as well as giving the young people a chance to meet other young carers. The activities ranged from spin class and dodge ball to treadmill exercise as well as yoga and indoor climbing. Local councillor Steve Ardley made the day possible by generously donating money from his locality budget.
You can read more about the day and see more photos here.
On Wednesday we visited Westley Middle School in Bury St Edmunds to make a film about young carers and what support is available in schools across Suffolk. Lots of young carers got involved to tell us more! The video will be premiering soon so watch this space!
On Thursday we visited schools throughout the county delivering PHSE lessons to pupils raising awareness of young carers and the amazing job they do as well as teaching them how important it is to look after their mental, as well as physical, health. We also presented a number of schools with their Schools Award for their outstanding commitment to young carer support. We also took some young carers on our Suffolk Family Carers bus for hot chocolate and marshmallows and visited colleges to raise awareness of young and young adult carers.
To further support YCAD 2019, we have designed and released an exclusive festival band in conjunction with some of the young carers we support. Our bands are being worn by young people across Suffolk as well as our partner organisations, patron Nicci Gerrard, Trustees and local Councillors. They have been sharing photos of them with their bands on social media all week using the #CareForMeToo. This # was chosen by young carers themselves as they developed their ideas for YCAD 2019. We are very pleased at how successful the festival bands have been so far… however, they are not just for YCAD 2019. You can purchase yours to show your ongoing support for young carers online here.
If you would like to read more stories from some of the young carers we support and hear how their caring role effects them, take a look at our young people’s blog.
You can see all our activities and photos from the last week and more on our social media accounts. Follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page to support family carers of all ages in Suffolk.
