TEAM 8 COCO

Early into our planning we made the decision to take a group of the young adult carers (YAC’s) as additional helpers for each Team. The YAC’s were an essential part of the trip.

The YAC’s stayed in their own lodge as Team Coco where they were able to share what they had been doing to help their groups, relax and even fit in a bit of revision for GCSE’s. When the groups were out and about at all of the YAC’s split up and were assigned 1 per group, it was clear to see what great role models they were for the younger ones and made connections with them very quickly. At Disneyland Paris, the YAC’s were particularly good at helping the young carers to conquer their fears and go on rides and rollercoasters that they were nervous about trying. The young carers enjoyed the YAC’s telling them about their activity respite programme and for those heading towards transition to the Team YAC, it helped them “to make friends and to get in to thinking what it would be like to join the YAC group.”

All the young carers have asked for more trips with the YAC’s helping and as we start setting up our YAC Ambassador programme, we look forward to them joining in with lots more trips in the future.