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Young Carers Awareness Day

Millie2787Millie2787 Posts: 5,191 Part of The Furniture
edited January 2020 in General Chat
Hey Everyone :)

Some of you may or may not know that today is Young carers awareness day. This is a nationwide Day campaign ran by the carers trust to, that's right you guessed it raise awareness of young carers. Each year there is a different theme or a focus as its called of what the day is about.

This year the focus called #CountMeIn and is around education providers and making sure that with the knowledge they can develop that they proactively are able to identify and put in place support for young carers. 

It's so important that education providers step up and put support in place for us as research by the carers trust found that : 
  • 2 in 3 young carers have been bullied in school
  • 1 in 3 young carers say there care role makes them stressed
  • on average young carers miss or cut short 48 days of school for there care role
  • 23% of young carers said there care role stopped them making friends
Some pretty Shocking facts, what do you think about them?

Its also been shown that as many as 1 in 5 Children are young carers, this amounts to around 4 or 5 in every school classroom when only a few years back this use to be 1 young carer in every classroom.

It's so so important the education providers put in place support as speaking from experience. its a hard job trying to juggle school/college and your care role. I found myself in a position a few weeks ago where I hadn't done my homework in college as mum had been poorly and I explained that I hadn't done it as I had to look after my mum, Now this teacher is aware I'm Young carer as she taught me last year but due to the fact she has no awareness around who or what we do I got met with the response "Well that's not an excuse to have not done it "

A question I want to leave you with is:

 How do you think you can Help a Friend in school who is a young carer or you think maybe a Young carer?


Sometimes all you need is one person to believe in you , for you to begin to believe in yourself.

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,551 Extreme Poster
    Awesome to see Young Carers Day trending on Twitter today, great to see such support. On the school front, I have often wondered if there is something that friends can do in terms of explaining things on behalf of the young carer to teachers? I know it can be tough having to constantly explain what caring involves for individuals and how that can impact school work, particularly at times of stress. Do you think that would have been useful in your situation where teachers haven't been so helpful in the past @Millie2787

  • Millie2787Millie2787 Posts: 5,191 Part of The Furniture
    Hey @Ed_

    I definitely think that having a friend who understood what I went through would of made getting through school and college right now much easier 

    Ironcially with the theme of today I’m at risk of being kicked out of college due to my attendance .... though this ain’t directly to do with having time off for my care role it’s to do with my health which I’ve had to sacrifice looking after to  look after my mum and brother and now I’m paying the price of potentially  missing out on finishing further education and going into higher education , all because I do everything I can to make my families life easier :( 
    Sometimes all you need is one person to believe in you , for you to begin to believe in yourself.
  • Millie2787Millie2787 Posts: 5,191 Part of The Furniture
    ‪As YoungCarersAwarenessDay draws to a close I want to leave you all with this ..... “To the young carers of the future , spread tour wings and let nothing get in your way” 🦋 

    Sometimes all you need is one person to believe in you , for you to begin to believe in yourself.
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