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. 

Finally, Worcestershire Young Carers delivers a 'Young Carer Ambassador Programme', funded by #iwill2018, a UK-wide campaign aiming to get six out of ten young people involved in social action by 2020. The project enables up to 60 10-18 year old young carers a place on one of four performing arts workshops held throughout the year, focusing on improving communication, public speaking and presentation skills, and ultimately supporting young people to develop the skills that employers look for. The project also aims to encourage a significant number of young people to become Young Carer Ambassadors following involvement in one of the workshops. This role will see them co-deliver assemblies at their schools alongside the Worcestershire Young Carers Education Link Worker, and will provide the opportunity to share their story with other young people whilst practicing the skills they have learned in public speaking, presentation and communication. The assemblies aim to educate schools on what it means to be a young carer and help to identify new young carers who are not currently receiving support from the service.

As part of Worcestershire Young Carers, we also 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  

 Apply to become a YSS Worcestershire Young Carers volunteer today by downloading the forms below. Once completed, please email to Volunteer Coordinator Laura Evans: [email protected]. 

Worcestershire Young Carers volunteer role description

YSS Volunteer Application Form

YSS Safeguarding Declaration Form 

YSS Equal Opportunities Form

Privacy Notice

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