Author: GYC

GYC have had a jam-packed summer with activities that have been attended by 185 young carers! For some it was their first time doing an activity with us and it was amazing to see them grow in confidence through the day, make new friends and even open up about their caring role to others.

To recap on our adventures this summer:

Wild in the woods

We had a brilliant activity day with the Ernest Cook Trust at their outdoor education centre. We spent the day exploring the woods in small groups finding natural equipment to help build dens, despite being armed with maps we took the wrong root and got lost once or twice which added to the adventure.

No outdoor trip is complete without toasted marshmallows and cooking popcorn on the open fire -what a treat! In the afternoon we learnt how to write in Viking on wood slices and had a go making our own woodland wristbands.

The young carers described the day as ‘fun, adventurous and exciting’.

Sports day is a must for the summer.

On this day the young carers were rotated across various activities such as parachute games, tennis, assault course, archery and the egg and spoon race.

Archery was kindly hosted by Andrew from The Pavilion, and it hit the mark with all the young carers. The afternoon consisted of football, rounders and ended with the much-loved dodgeball, with adults mixed into each dodgeball team. There was an uprising with chants of ‘get the adults’ and all the children had fun with their new targets.

Having a real hoot

We visited the Cotswold Falconry centre and watched two shows on a variety of majestic birds, we saw them in flight, swooping through the air until they were a tiny spec in the distant and walked around meeting vultures, falcons, eagles, hawks and kites to name the few.

We were lucky to see two baby owls go for their daily walk, understandably they had to have a nap on the grass after the excitement of nipping everyone’s fingers and being petted.

Ice cream dreams

Quick scoop about the three tours we had at Walls factory from makers of sausages and meat pies to the well-known ice cream connoisseurs they are today. Dressed in our finest PPE we watched how various ice creams were made and packed from Soleros dipped in their fruit juice to the much-loved Ben and Jerrys.

We also had an important task of taste testing unlimited ice creams well done to the young carers who managed 4. Each young carers were gifted a bag of exclusive merchandise this included a Ben and Jerry hot water bottle, Carte D’or Candle, Magnum beanie and a hot/cold cup, notebook, and pen.

Walk on the wild side

In the jungle the lions were sleeping tonight, actually at the Cotswold Wildlife Park they were cuddling. It was so wonderful to see the various animals in their houses – our favourites were the baby white rhino, penguins being fed, capybaras, red panda, and course we can’t forget 8-meter pythons.

Water you doing this weekend?

We are diving into Saturday with Frampton Sailing Day which is kindly hosted by the sailing club. We will be having a beautiful walk around the lake, followed by a BBQ lunch. After lunch it will be aboat time to go on to the lake with experienced sailors.

Some feedback from young carers who were asked how these activities helped them :

“It made me feel like part of a nice group/community’.

‘we could interact with people who were in the same situation as us’.

‘it helps to meet people going through the same’

This year we are privileged and thrilled to be celebrating 30 years working with and for young carers and young adult carers.  They are a truly an inspiring group of young people!

The charity has grown from small beginnings with initially just 4 young carers in Stroud to now supporting over 1000 young carers across the county.

Our 30^th Anniversary launch on the 21^st September will set off a year of exciting developments and activities. A brand-new website, a film featuring current and past young carers and supporters, and a ‘30 for 30’ fundraising campaign are all set for the launch! Our 30^th Anniversary highlight will be a Family Fun Day in June 2024, rounding off the celebrations.

We are so proud of what we have achieved with young carers to raise awareness and improve services over the past 30 years. But there is more to be done to ensure all young carers are able to achieve their aspirations.  We look forward to the next 30 years ‘Supporting the Young in Young Carer’!

We were pleased to be invited to attend a charity tea party at the home of Julia and Hans Rausing to celebrate the work of our volunteers. Volunteers Annie, Amber, Judy and Paul attended with Operations Manager, Ele.

‘What a lovely afternoon was spent at the garden party given by Julia and Hans Rausing for some of the Gloucestershire charities they had supported. Hans and Julia Rausing were there to greet us at their beautiful Cotswold mansion situated in rolling grounds. The very English afternoon tea was delightful, and the local ice cream was extremely delicious. But for me the highlight was the tour around the magnificent walled garden beautifully tended with an Edwardian style orangery or glass house at its centre.

It was truly lovely afternoon and the sun shone.’

Annie | Volunteer

‘I just wanted to say a huge thank you for inviting me along to the Charity Tea Party today. I felt honoured to represent Young Carers and had a great time! Thank you for thinking of me. Gloucestershire Young Carers is such a special charity to me, and I really enjoy volunteering. You all go above and beyond, and these young people are so lucky to have such a fantastic team supporting them.’

Amber | Volunteer

We are very grateful to the Julia and Hans Rausing Trust which currently funds towards activity breaks for young carers enabling them to have a break from their caring role and experience new opportunities and meet and make friends with other young carers.

St James Place help to make GYC Sports Day a huge success . . .

• Why did you decide to volunteer for GYC? We are fortunate that SJP allows us time to volunteer, and we chose Gloucestershire Young Carers because it is local to us and supports young people in our community. Spending a day volunteering is so much more rewarding than simply making a donation to an organisation (although that is important too) as you feel you are making a positive difference to the lives of people who need it.
• It would be great if you could share how, you felt going along to help at the young carers Sports Day? We were intrigued as we didn’t really know what to expect and excited to meet new people and spend a day doing something non-work related.
• What kind of things did you get involved with? We helped out and joined in activities including rounders, dodgeball, football and archery.
• How did volunteering make you feel? We all enjoyed the day very much and felt a sense of pride that we were able to help the young people take time away from their responsibilities and have fun. It was noticeable how they got more confident and talkative as the day progressed. It was also a great experience to spend time with colleagues who we don’t work closely with and to get to know them better.
• What would you say to anyone else thinking about volunteering with GYC? Do it! GYC does really important work and watching the young carers enjoying themselves gives you a great sense of wellbeing and helps to put other day to day stresses into perspective.

What a team you made; thank so much Ann, Chris, Elaine, Karen, Matt and Matt, Toby for all the help you gave to help make the young carers Sports Day a great success.

Employer supported volunteering at it best.

Dear Corporate, would your team, or a small group of your colleagues, be interested in doing a *CSR day together?  To find out more about volunteering opportunities, for which your company can help to give something back to the community, Gloucestershire Young Carers would love to hear from you.  Please contact Sue, our Volunteer Coordinator on 01452 733060 or email: mail@glosyoungcarers.org.uk

*Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) days help companies to fulfil their responsibilities to make a positive impact on employees and communities through its activities. CSR days also help improve the perception of a company amongst its staff when they become involved through community volunteering.

Huge thanks to FIND NATHAN Fund, who made it possible for Gloucestershire Young Carers to take 25 young adult carers to the South Cerney lakes for a day of activity, fun, relaxation and connection.

It was amazing to see so many young adult carers who are new to our service having a fantastic time paddleboarding and canoeing for the first time at the beautiful surroundings of the lakes, especially the ones who were very nervous to start, but loved every moment once on the water, building confidence and simply having fun.

After the water sports, the young people enjoyed a delicious BBQ lunch provided by Alexander Burn Funeral Directors and Tesco (thank you so much!), and an afternoon of chilling, chatting, making new friends, playing cards, garden games, hula hooping, juggling and taking in the calming and stunning nature around them.

“The chance to do a fun activity I’ve not been able to do before”

“It was very entertaining and was lovely having a laugh with people and the support from the staff members”

We were delighted to present two Gloucestershire schools their plaque and certificate to mark their achievement of the GHLL Young Carers Accreditation, an award for schools demonstrating best practice in identifying and supporting young carers.

Both schools were presented with their award before the end of the summer term, the first being Chosen Hill School in Churchdown. Schools have to demonstrate the following to apply for the award – young carer school lead(s) (pastoral and senior leadership team), whole school awareness-raising (ie. assemblies and noticeboard ), staff training ( staff completed our bespoke eLearning package for education professionals), a young carers policy, a designated governor trained on young carers, and also that there is some kind of specialist provision for them within school (such a weekly group or termly drop-in).

Ms. Stoneman, Deputy Head at Chosen Hill, had worked hard to ensure that the policies, processes, and provision at the school met these criteria.  It was great to meet her and her colleague Miss Hill and some of the young carers at the school to have a small celebration for the school to commemorate the presentation of the award.

Chesterton Primary School in Cirencester is another school that has done all it can to prove that it is worthy of the award.  Ms. Hannis, Pastoral Lead, has done an amazing job making sure that the whole school is young carer aware.   This time, the entire school was gathered to celebrate this achievement and had a drone ready to capture the moment on the school field!   Ms. Hannis is a real champion for young carers in Gloucestershire – a professional who once worked for GYC so knows the needs of young carers first-hand.  She has ensured all the schools she has worked in since then have done what they needed to do to gain this award!

We thank both schools for their commitment to young carers and hope they can be beacons of best practice and inspire other schools to achieve this award.

If you would like to find out more about Young Carer Accreditation, we would love to hear from you.

Contact Education Development Officer Clover Lake clover@glosyoungcarers.org.uk or 01452733060 for more information.

GYC’s Hana Gill is taking on the challenge of swimming 30k to raise funds for the charity.  GYC’s 30 for 30 campaign is a fundraising idea to suit anyone. Want to bake 30 cakes? Do 30 minutes of walking for 30 days? Go 30 days without social media? Our goal is to collectively raise £30,000 to support the charity in its 30^th Anniversary year.  We would love people to get involved – whether you raise £3 or £30 or £300 pounds – it will all help to support young carers!

We asked Hana Gill, Development Manger (Education & Participation) about her idea…

I was keen to think of something that would be a challenge and also good for my health and wellbeing!   I love swimming – especially in wild places such as lakes so what better idea than to combine this with raising money for GYC. So I have challenged myself to swim 30k – but not all in one go! I am hoping I will complete the challenge in a few months.  Just to add a bit of interest and variety I am going to try and attempt to find 30 different locations to swim in!  Some (such as the local river Frome) I might only do a few metres in whilst others (such as Stratford Park Lido) I will revisit to get the distance covered.  The context of this is I have never learnt to swim front crawl so I am not very fast in the water – but slowly and steadily I hope to reach my target!

How are you getting on?

I’ve made a start but have a long way to go – I am 3 kilometres into my target and have swum in four different locations.  My favourite swim yet was a dip in the lake at the foot of Pen Y Fan in Wales (pictured)– pretty chilly but most exhilarating and I soon warmed up climbing the peak afterwards!

We are encouraging GYCs wonderful supporters to take on a 30 for 30 challenge or activity of their own.   Big or small – we would love to hear what you are planning to do.  Call us for a chat on 01452 733060 or email mail@glosyoungcarers.org.uk.

If anyone would like to sponsor Hana you can through the link here: Hana Gill is fundraising for Gloucestershire Young Carers Project (justgiving.com)

Fortunately, the weather held out and it was a beautifully sunny and warm day.

The young carers were split up into 4 groups to begin with and rotated across various activities such as parachute games, tennis, assault course, archery and egg and spoon race. We were supported by seven amazing volunteers from St James Place who helped with the activities and made sure the children had lots of fun.

For a cheeky twist on the classic egg and spoon race the children were given beanbags and after a couple of rounds they were blindfolded and faced away from the start line. It is an understatement to say chaos ensued! Bean bags were lost, and all sense of direction was out of the window.

Archery was kindly hosted by Andrew from The Pavilion, and it hit the mark with all the young carers.

The afternoon consisted of football, rounders and ended with the much-loved dodgeball, with adults mixed into each dodgeball team there was an uprising with chants of ‘get the adults’ and all the children had fun with their new targets.

The young carers got a lot out of the day, many young carers were in groups with people they had never met before and this didn’t stop them being talkative with each other, lots of new friendships and peer support systems were formed. It was heartwarming to see their confidence grow throughout the day, seeing them swap numbers with each other and even children who knew sign language signing to each other. 

When asked if the day helped them the young carers said;

‘It made me feel like part of a nice group/community’.

‘Yes since we could interact with people who were in the same situation as us’.

‘it help meet people going through the same’

Young carers had the rare opportunity to look at and handle exotic creatures at our Twigworth offices.

In July, a small group were given the chance to meet some unique and special animals finding out all kinds of interesting facts about them.  They were excited to meet snakes, chinchillas, giant toads, giant rabbits, a baby tortoise and even a skunk. John, from Animal-mania, taught the young carers all about the different creatures and answered the many questions they had! He also made sure they were safely able to touch and handle them.

Despite some initial nerves, they all had a turn handling the animals and showed real bravery to overcome their fears.  Comments from the young carers included –

“It didn’t feel like anything I expected!”

“I was scared at first because I thought he had big claws but once he was on my lap, I realised he was just cute and fluffy!”

At GYC we try to ensure that young carers have access to positive experiences such as this, as they often lack the same opportunities as their peers to have days out and fun activities. 

Scott Bailey-Locke, Social Prescriber, who organised the session described the impact on the young carers who attended “It was really great to see all of the children enjoying themselves and getting hands-on with all the animals. For some of these children, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience so to see them all with such a big smile on their face is amazing. A massive thank you to Animal-mania who gave an incredible experience and a memory that will last with these young carers for a long time!” 

Thanks to Juliet Stainforth we have created a library of books for our young carers to access.  Juliet has many contacts in the world of publishing, she has sourced lots of lovely books which over the years she has very kindly donated to Gloucestershire Young Carers. 

Our Assessment Team, who visit the young people in their homes and carry out a young carer assessment find them a useful resource.  Having a gift to take is a real ice breaker with the young people, especially as we are giving them something special just for them.  They love receiving their books. 

In Juliet’s words:  “I was introduced to Gloucestershire Young Carers by a previous High Sheriff who explained to me the work they do, and having worked with young children, and subsequently in the book world, I realized that brand new free books would enhance their work and help towards some very happy children which I gather it does!” 

Recently our lovely volunteer Paul collected several books from Juliet. One colleague mentioned that recently a quiet and anxious young carer was very excited to see all the books on the bookshelves when she arrived for a group at Twigworth and was even more thrilled when she realised that she could take a book home. When she had chosen a book, she enthusiastically talked about the other books that she had read in the series and how she loved reading and wanted to run her own library when she was older so she could share her love of reading with other children. 

Maria, Assessment Worker says “At home visits all the young carers have told me how much they love the books and the GYC bookmark which I include with the books. 

Sibling carers love having something just for themselves as they often get missed out. 

It’s a lovely positive thing to do, and it makes the workers feel good too.” 

Thank you, Juliet, your donation of books is a very important resource to help us with the work we do with young carers in Gloucestershire.