Worcestershire Young Carers

What is Worcestershire Young Carers?

Worcestershire Young Carers has been successfully delivered by YSS since 2003. The service is commissioned by Worcestershire County Council to provide assessment, signposting, one to one support and monthly youth clubs for young people with a caring role at home, aged between seven and 17, who live in Worcestershire. Additionally, the service provides support to young people aged between 18 and 25 who are considered young adult carers. The caring role could be for a parent, a sibling or a grandparent due to illness, disability, physical or mental health difficulties or substance misuse.

The service is also funded by BBC Children in Need to deliver a Participation Group, which focuses on highlighting the needs of young carers, and helps get their voices heard by organisations and services that affect them. This has been running since 2013.

Thanks to generous private donors, YSS also employs an Education Link Worker who works in partnership with schools and colleges throughout the county to improve identification and support of young carers, ensuring they are safe, healthy, aspiring and achieving. The Education Link Worker strengthens ties with local schools and develops new relationships with schools not currently aware or engaging with the service. The Education Link Worker also delivers assemblies to pupils, identifies key contacts and responsibilities within schools and delivers presentations to staff teams – all with the aim of raising awareness of young carers and the issues they face. 

As part of the service, we deliver a wide range of trips and activities during school holidays to ensure young carers enjoy a break from their caring responsibilities, and provide opportunities they would not otherwise have access to. These additional activities are only made possible thanks to donations from members of the public, as well as fundraising from individuals, groups, clubs, schools and businesses.  

Want to get involved?

Donate

We currently work with more than 400 young carers from across Worcestershire but we know this is just the tip of the iceberg. We want to support as many young carers as possible and you can help us do that. Please donate to support our clubs and activities which, for many, provide the rare opportunity to experience new things, socialise and have fun away from their caring roles. Click here to donate. 

Become a Worcestershire Young Carers Volunteer  

If you are interested in becoming a Worcestershire Young Carers volunteer please download our Volunteer Role Description here and click here to download our Volunteer Application form.

Find out more

Click the links below to read about the work Worcestershire Young Carers delivers:

Support for Young Carers

Support for Young Adult Carers

Education Link Project

BBC Children in Need Participation Group