York Carers Centre Twitter Takeover
On Thursday 13th May, York Carers Centre will be taking over York Castle Museum’s Twitter account to highlight their work in the city and to share our collections that illustrate their young people’s skills.
David, who is a student social worker, is currently doing a placement at York Carers Centre. He has written this blog to tell us more about the centre and their young people.
“In doing the takeover, we here at York Carers Centre hope that we are able to raise awareness of young carers and reach new ‘hidden’ young carers in need of support. We’ll be focussing on some of the amazing skills young carers gain through their caring roles.
About us
York Carers Centre is an independent charity, and a network member of the national Carers Trust. We make sure unpaid carers in York have free access to confidential information, advice and support. We support carers of all ages, including adults, young adults (aged 18 to 25), and young carers (aged 5 to 18).
Our young carers service
We support children and young people from age 5 who are helping to ‘look after’ someone at home. Looking after may involve the following: practical tasks, such as cooking, housework and shopping; physical care, such as helping someone out of bed; emotional support, such as talking or listening to someone who is distressed; personal care, such as helping someone dress or go to the toilet; managing the family budget; collecting prescriptions; helping to give someone their medication; helping someone to communicate and looking after brothers and sisters.
What we offer young carers
The young carers service supports in a variety of ways including youth clubs, trips, one–to–one support, school peer support drop–ins, a discount card for shops in York and a Carers Emergency Card scheme.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, and without being able to provide our regular peer-support drop-ins at schools, we have seen the need for one–to–one support increase dramatically with young carers under much more pressure.
Our one–to–one support has been provided digitally through video and phone calls, and the team have spent time and effort trying to recreate the atmosphere and environment of face-to-face youth groups through our online groups, allowing young carers the best break from their caring environment. We’ve worked with some local artists to facilitate fun online, group sessions, with activities focussed on young carers expressing themselves through creativity.
We’ve also increased our intake of volunteers with lived experience of caring responsibilities to further enhance our support.
Thank you YMT
We at York Carers Centre are very thankful to York Museums Trust for allowing us to ‘takeover’ their public platforms for the day. As a team we hope that, in doing so, we are able to reach new carers and young carers, and raise awareness of caring, and the free support available to carers in the city.
Please get in touch with us for more information about free support for carers in York”
T: 01904 715 490
E: enquiries@yorkcarerscentre.co.uk