Young Carers Action Day 2022 (formerly known as Young Carers Awareness Day) is taking place on 16th March 2022 and the theme is tackling isolation among young carers. They have lots of free resources to help you get involved; you can use the resources as they are or add your own logo to them.
Carers Trust is a major charity for, with and about carers. They work to improve support, services and recognition for anyone living with the challenges of caring, unpaid, for a family member or friend who is ill, frail, disabled or has mental health or addiction problems. Their vision is that unpaid carers count and can access the help they need to live their lives.
Young Carers Action Day is an annual event, organised each year by Carers Trust.
It’s a day for raising public awareness of young carers and young adult carers, the pressures and challenges they face, and the incredible contribution they make by caring for their family members and friends.
It is also a day to call for more action to support young and young adult carers and give them the extra bit of help they need to live full and healthy lives.
The day attracts widespread participation and public attention. Each year Carers Trust secures widespread coverage of the day in both national and regional TV, radio and print media.
Young Carers Action Day also attracts huge social media engagement with young and young adult carers all over the UK, sharing images, messages and other content like video, blogs and art. In the last few years #YoungCarersActionDay has trended on Twitter!
Early identification and support at school is crucial in helping young carers these challenges. Simple measures, such as flexible homework deadlines, exceptions to mobile phone policies, a Carer Passport Scheme, or career advice which takes the skills developed through caring into consideration, can have a hugely positive impact. Formal assessment by a Local Authority, facilitated through a local young carers service, can safeguard young carers from taking on unreasonable care responsibilities and identification at school can be a step towards this.
If you would like to start identifying and supporting young carers in your school, you can get in contact with your local carers service to find out what support they can offer you and the young carers at your school: https://carers.org/search/network-partners?postcode=
We have recently launched a Mental Health and Wellbeing portal; the resource is intended to support schools to develop a positive culture and talk about “mental wealth”. The videos explore the range of unique training opportunities offered to the LGfL community to support schools wherever they are currently on their journey regarding mental health and wellbeing for both staff and pupils. If you are a member of staff working in a school please take a look at the resource and consider how you can support young carers to tackle any isolation they feel.
Do you have a young carer and a budding blogger or video-maker in your school? Or perhaps a poet or artist looking to share your creative flair? If the answer to that is yes, then do consider getting them to submit work to the “Identity” section of Amplify. We want students to examine and explore their identity and a young carer could give a perspective on what it feels like to identify as a young carer.