Helping Young Carers to Thrive

Aim

To help Young Carers to find balance, give them space to enjoy being young & support them to pursue their dreams outside of caring.

Sunbeams is looking for more ways to teach our children and young people, who have caring roles, the skills they need to become independent as they reach adulthood and help them reach decisions that will have a positive impact on their futures.

All of the young carers who attend Sunbeams are living with a family member who needs constant support to enable them to remain safe and access services available to them.

Growing up should be about exploring and finding out who you are. But for young carers who have to look after a loved one, it's a little more tricky.  Many young carers, and those around them, don't even realise that they are carers. 

Young carers complete a range of tasks to support their family member, including shopping, cooking, cleaning, managing medicines and providing personal care.  There is very little time for them to take care of their own needs or even think about what their lives may be like when they reach adulthood.

Sunbeams would like to offer further opportunities to help young carers to start planning for their future and to do this we will focus on work experience opportunities, training skills and providing the necessary tools for them to succeed.

Our idea is to provide a place where our young carers can feel safe, supported and unjudged and where they can learn their new skills alongside their peers who are in similar circumstance as themselves.  Together we will create a holistic and nurturing environment where our young carers can begin to share their hopes and dreams for their future as well as learn skills such as budgeting, saving and online banking helping them understand the importance of money management and looking ahead.

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We will provide training opportunities where appropriate, fund courses such as child care, provide workwear and create a work type environment for our young carers to experience.  Money management will be a large part of the work with workshops brought in and therapy sessions included.

This project successfully funded on 17th October 2023