WINTER PROGRAMME PROJECT REVIEW 2021
2788 HOURS OF ACTIVITIES FOR YOUNG CARERS
TOTAL OF
1042
ENGAGEMENTS
83
EVENTS OVER THE WINTER TERM
WINTER PROGRAMME 2021 PROJECT REVIEW
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
2
FUNDERS & SUPPORTERS
3
OCTOBER HALF TERM
4
CHRISTMAS PROGRAMME - PANTOMIMES
6
- ACTIVITY DAYS
8
- CINEMA PJ PARTY
10
- ONLINE EVENTS
11
- TEAM YAC CHRISTMAS
12
WHAT WE DO - CHESHIRE YOUNG CARERS
14
- TEAM YAC
16
1
INTRODUCTION
WINTER PROGRAMME REVIEW 2021
As you read this report on the Christmas activities delivered by Cheshire Young Carers, I ask you to remember that these were all planned and delivered in the eye of a storm called the “Omicron variant of Covid”. There was concern that more restrictions might be imposed and parents and young carers were naturally worried about the situation. The number of people both infected, and isolating, was increasing throughout December. It was against this challenging background that the team once again rose to the challenge and delivered a programme of activities that included face to face events. In addition, it brought some traditional Christmas magic back into the lives of young carers with visits to pantomimes and Christmas themed activities. At the same time the programme of activities reflected the situation, with some children self-isolating, so the team continued to deliver some online activities. Many families received gift packs from us to support some of the activities, including food ingredients for the online family cooking. As ever we are very grateful to all of our funders who make delivery of the school holiday programme possible and there needs to be a big shout out to the Cheshire Young Carers volunteers and staff team who make the magic happen. Children who are young carers have challenging lives but given the opportunity they can relax and enjoy the time they spend with other young carer friends. School holiday periods are isolating for many young carers so the respite opportunities we provide are essential in supporting them.
Thank you,
Graham Phillips Graham Phillips Managing Director Cheshire Young Carers
2
FUNDERS & SUPPORTERS Without the support of our generous donors, this programme would not have been possible. We want to thank them for their support, donations and encouragement.
THE PROGRAMME WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE WITH OUT THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF DONORS!
Edsential Aviagen Turkeys Barnard Engineering Frodsham Sings Innospec RB Surveyor Services Morrisons - Ellesmere Port Asda - Ellesmere Port Cheshire West and Chester Council Cheshire East Council Steve Morgan Foundation Westminster Foundation Cheshire Community Foundation The Community Support Shop Barbour ABI Nantwich Rotary Club Neumark Foundation
SPECIAL THANK YOU TO.... We would like to say a special thank you to Chester Racecourse who kindly gifted Cheshire Young Carers with an exuctive suite for The Lord Mayor’s Fireworks Extravaganza. Our young carers and chosen family member had an amazing time!
3
OCTOBER HALF TERM
HALLOWEEN PARTIES Young carers arrived in their spooky fancy dress ready for a day full of Halloween festive fun in Crewe, Macclesfield, Chester, Ellesmere Port and Winsford. We were joined by regular attending young carers and some new young carers joining us on their first event, all loved being able to spend time with their friends at the party as well as making new friends. The parties started with a few of the young carers’ favourite games, but with a spooky twist which was a great opportunity to get to know each other and get into the party spirit. The young carers also got to express their creative sides with a pumpkin carving competition. Many of the young carers taking part had never carved a pumpkin before and loved experiencing it. The young carers helped each other out especially with the tricky part of getting all the pumpkin insides out. They all had so much fun coming up with unique designs and silly pumpkin faces. After all of the pumpkin excitement the young carers enjoyed some party food and Halloween cakes, whilst bopping along to spooky tunes. The dancing carried on into the Halloween themed party games, where the young carers got dizzy dancing to ‘Spooky Skeletons’ as they battled for the last chair in Musical Chairs. They showed off their best dance moves as they did the Monster Mash and tried to keep as still possible when the music stopped for Musical Statues. Before the party came to an end all young carers left with a goody bag of Halloween treats and lots of spooktacular prizes!
4
SPOOKY BINGO
“
MOLLIE HAD AN AMAZING TIME AT THE HALLOWEEN PARTY, IT WAS HER FIRST SESSION AND CAN’T WAIT TO ATTEND MORE YOUNG CARER EVENTS
“
Back again for more competitive fun was Family BINGO night on Zoom. Young carers joined hosts Mad Hatter Meg and Día de los Muertos Claire, to battle out, along with their families, to get a full house. Some young carers joined in with the fancy dress and were ready to dance and sing along to the spooky tunes as well as the usual favourites from past games of Family Bingo. The winner of the first line won a £5 Amazon voucher and the winner of the full house won a £10 Amazon voucher.
VAN GOGH ALIVE
TEAM YAC
Young Adult Carers (YACs) met staff at Chester and Crewe railway stations to travel into Manchester Piccadilly, where the groups joined together to take the tram to Salford Quays. The purpose of the trip was to visit Van Gogh Alive, an immersive art exhibition unlike any other visits to traditional art galleries. In a purpose-built gallery on the side of Salford Quays, Van Gogh’s masterpieces truly came to life, giving the young carers the sensation of walking right into his paintings. In the Interpretative Area there was information about the life and works of Vincent Van Gogh and an opportunity to take a selfie in a life sized representation of ‘Van Gogh’s Bedroom’ one of his most famous pieces of work. Most of the visit was spent in the SENSORY4™ Gallery, an immersive experience that awakens the senses and literally transports you inside Van Gogh’s greatest works. The classical music accompanying the moving artwork added to the experience. The final part of the visit was a walk into a room completely full of sunflowers where the mirrors made it looks as though there were hundreds of sunflowers and provided another great selfie opportunity. The group visited the Quays shopping centre and chose to eat lunch at Nando’s before making the return journey home on trams and trains.
5
CHRISTMAS
PANTOMIMES Pantomimes are a favourite part of our Christmas programme to get the young carers into the true festive spirit. We were so excited to be able to go back to the theatre and experience live theatre again with the young carers and many of the young carers had never seen a live show on stage before. They also enjoyed an ice cream in the interval and being able to spend time with friends.
BEAUTY & THE BEAST
THEATR CLWYD, MOLD
Theatr Clwyd is set just outside Chester in Mold, North Wales, which was the perfect opportunity to not only invite our young carers from Cheshire to join the pantomime fun, but we also invited North Wales Young Carers to join us too. This was a lovely collaboration of young carers, as many made new friends and encouraged them to join in with more activities. Theatr Clwyd is famous for its Rock’n’roll pantomime, where they bring well known stories and fairytales to life with classic rock music that everyone knows and can sing along to. This year’s story followed Beauty who is a funny, smart, and ready to rock character who falls in love with the Beast, who is grumpy, hairy and in for a shock! The young carers were on the edge of their seats to see if the curse would be lifted, and if love saved the day.
6
CINDERELLA
GRANGE THEATRE, WINSFORD The Grange Theatre is a great location for our young carers who live in and around the Northwich and Winsford area, the theatre also put on a fantastic pantomime. The young carers were able to enjoy the show with seats close to the stage and even closer to the action. It was safe to say they all had a lot of fun getting soaked by the water pistols that the cast squirted at the audience! The pantomime followed the story of Cinderella who longs for a more happy and exciting life away from her wicked Stepsisters. Thankfully, she has her loveable companion, Buttons, there to look after her. When the dashing Prince Charming decides to hold a ball to find his future wife, this may just be the chance Cinderella has been waiting for. The young carers were excited to see what the Fairy Godmother could do to help Cinderella get to the ball and find true love. The pantomime included lots of great upbeat music which the young carers enjoyed singing and dancing along to, as well as enjoying lots of funny jokes.
SLEEPING BEAUTY
CREWE LYCEUM, CREWE
“
THANK YOU FOR HELPING LUCY, LIKE LOTS OF CHILDREN SHE HAS FOUND COVID HARD, HERE’S HOPING NEXT YEAR WILL BE BETTER!
“
The Crewe Lyceum is a popular theatre which the young carers love to visit. This year they were super excited for the return of the Christmas pantomime Sleeping Beauty. The pantomime takes place ‘once upon a time in a land far away’, where the beautiful Princess Aurora is given a sixteenth birthday present by her evil Godmother Carabosse. By pricking her finger on the needle of an enchanted spinning wheel, she is placed under a cruel curse and forced to sleep for 100 years. The young carers eagerly watched to see if true love could survive and if the handsome prince could break the spell. Aurora’s hilarious best friend Muddles (Bobby Davro) brought big smiles to the young carers’ faces as he helped save the town and outwit the evil Enchantress to foil her wicked plans.
7
CHRISTMAS
CHRISTMAS ACTIVITY DAYS Young carers across Cheshire attended a festive packed activity day during the week running up to Christmas. The activity days were all about getting together and having fun which built the excitement even more for the young carers as we got closer to Christmas. Young carers who attended the local community centres in Ellesmere Port, Winsford, Crewe and Macclesfield had a morning full of Christmas crafting, making Christmas cards with unique and colourful designs and getting messy decorating Christmas tree ornaments using the technique of hydro dipping. Luckily despite all the messy crafting fun we managed to keep everyone’s Christmas jumpers clean! The Chester group had a very active morning in the Northgate Arena, enjoying festive themed games and funny relay races. They were also able to use an interactive screen to compete against each other in fun mini games that encouraged physical activity and positive wellbeing. Due to the #HAF2021 funding from Edsential and Cheshire East, we were able to provide a hot meal for all young carers who attended these activity days. Young carers in East enjoyed jacket potatoes with a choice of tasty fillings. Food in East was all prepped and prepared by our Education Manager, Sarah, who loved using her cooking skills and experience as a previous chef to provide young carers with warm healthy meals. Young carers in West enjoyed a choice of pasta bolognese and curry, prepared and cooked by Rob, who is part of the activities team
8
and has used his scout skills to teach our young carers how to cook on an open fire in previous sessions. With the funding we were also able to give out food parcels at these Christmas activity days which included enough food for young carers to have a healthy, warm meal for 3 days of the Christmas holidays. After a lovely lunch young carers danced along to Christmas music and shared the funny jokes in their Christmas crackers. They also all enjoyed watching a virtual pantomime created by Panto Online. The pantomime followed the story of Cinderella and was an interactive virtual experience which all the young carers enjoyed. We were also able to give out selection boxes thanks to donations from Morrisons Gadbrook Park and young carers in Macclesfield were visited by Macclesfield Lions who also gave out some special Christmas treats.
DIGITAL ACTIVITY PACK
“
THANKS FOR THE PARTY, SAM WAS BUZZING WHEN HE CAME HOME!
“
For those who couldn’t attend our activity days we created an interactive digital pack sent out via email. It was packed full of Christmas themed activities, challenges and recipes for young carers to complete at home.
9
CHRISTMAS
CINEMA PJ PARTY Young carers were excited to have their very own private screening of Disney’s new hit movie ‘Encanto’. Travelling by coach they were even more excited to go to the cinema in their pyjamas! Cheshire West groups travelled to Cineworld Broughton, and Cheshire East groups travelled to Cineworld Stoke on Trent. Everyone loved being able to dance along to all the music and enjoyed the bright vibrancy and thrilling story of the film. The young carers also loved treating themselves to cinema snacks, with popcorn and slushies being the most popular choices.
“
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TODAY HARRY AND OLIVIA HAVE HAD A WONDERFUL TIME, THEY HAVE NOT STOPPED TALKING SINCE I PICKED THEM UP!
“
10
ONLINE EVENTS
FESTIVE FAMILY TRIVIA & BINGO The Family QUIZ was back with a new and very competitive Kahoot! quiz. Young carers and their families were able to join in the quiz over Zoom, and with them using the Kahoot! app to interact with the quiz, they were all able to compete to get top of the leader board. The quiz had 3 rounds, the first round was Christmas Trivia, followed by a Christmas Films round and finishing with a Christmas Music round. The winners won a Just Eat voucher to enjoy a takeaway as a family.
“
“
Festive BINGO took place between Christmas and New Year and was packed with lots of fun and competitive spirit. The families battled it out to see who would win a line first and it was a very close call. Once the line was won everyone was on the edge of their seats to see who the winner would be!
THANKS FOR THE CHRISTMAS COOKING SESSION THIS MORNING BECKY REALLY ENJOYED IT. CAN’T WAIT TO TRY SOME FOR DESSERT! FAMILY COOKING Young carers joined Claire for a very chocolatey Christmas baking workshop where they learnt how to make a Chocolate Berry Tart combining crushed Oreo biscuits, melted butter and chocolate spread for the base and making a chocolate ganache filling from cream and melted dark chocolate. Whilst it was cooling everyone tackled the washing up before decorating with their chosen berries and serving with cream.
11
CHRISTMAS - TEAM YAC
CHRISTMAS MARKETS
MANCHESTER
Team YAC, our young adult carer group (14-18 years) designed their own Christmas Programme.
“ 12
I LOVED THE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING TRIP TO MANCHESTER, IT WAS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE TRIPS I’VE DONE. THE TREATS WE GOT WHILST WE WERE THERE WERE SO LOVELY
“
One experience they were keen to arrange was a preChristmas trip to Manchester Christmas Markets. The groups met at Crewe and Chester railway stations and travelled to Manchester where they joined together to enjoy some festive treats and buy gifts for family and friends. After exploring the Christmas markets in small groups, everyone met up at Cosmo, a world buffet restaurant where the young carers were able to try different cuisines. Many tried sushi for the first time and enjoyed being able to try lots of different dishes. The afternoon was spent finishing their Christmas shopping in the Arndale Centre before meeting up at Piccadilly Station to catch their trains home.
TEN PIN BOWLING
CHESHIRE OAKS & STOKE ON TRENT Team YAC enjoyed two ten pin bowling trips during the Christmas holidays. Cheshire West YACs met up at Cheshire Oaks for a fun filled morning of very competitive bowling! They also enjoyed lunch together at Frankie and Benny’s where they were presented with gift bags full of Christmas treats. Cheshire East YACs enjoyed an afternoon bowling trip to Stoke on Trent where they were able to compete against each other and then joined together at Pizza Hut where they were also given Christmas goody bags. Thanks to M&S Bank, Macclesfield Lions and Morrisons for donating gifts!
“
“
THE LIVERPOOL TRIP WAS GREAT BECAUSE WE CAN GO OFF IN GROUPS AND HAVE FUN
CHRISTMAS SHOPPING
LIVERPOOL
The final Christmas event for Team YAC was a trip to Liverpool after New Year to spend Christmas vouchers and money they had received as gifts. Once again, groups met at Chester and Crewe railway stations and joined together at Liverpool Lime Street. The YACs split into smaller groups to visit the different shops and met up for lunch at Bon Pan Asia for a Chinese feast. In the afternoon some of the groups visited the museums and art galleries at the Albert Dock before travelling home again by train.
13
WHAT WE DO
CHESHIRE YOUNG CARERS Cheshire Young Carers provide a range of support across three key areas: 1. Fortnightly activity groups 2. School holiday respite programmes 3. Support in school or college Our activity groups give young carers the opportunity to socialise with other children who have caring roles at home. We provide a safe space for them to talk about their worries or concerns, but most importantly we create an environment for them to have FUN! We run bi-weekly sessions in Ellesmere Port, Chester, Neston, Winsford, Crewe and Macclesfield, as well as after school clubs. They are designed to offer young carers engaging activities that are fun and to crucially help break down isolation amongst young carers.
14
“
“
MONTHLY SESSIONS ARE SO HELPFUL, THEY GIVE US TIME TO CATCH UP WITH FRIENDS
SCHOOL HOLIDAY RESPITE PROGRAMMES Our school holiday respite programmes have been designed to overcome a key period of stress for young carers when they can be expected to provide 24/7 support. Our focus on this area is a direct result of feedback from young carers. We now offer activity programmes during every school holiday period with a variety of activities based around Cheshire and on many occasions provide meals. Some of our favourite places to visit during the holidays: Chester Zoo Alton Towers Boulder Hut Freedome Trampolining TeamSport Go Karting Ninja Warrior Adventure Safety Central Stapeley Grange Wildlife Centre Blackpool Pleasure Beach Delamere Forest Ranger Centre
White Peak Alpacas Manley Mere Positive Ponies Jodrell Bank Substation Westlake Cadbury World Odeon / Cineworld Tenpin Bowl Go Ape
….AND SO MUCH MORE!
15
TEAM YAC
WHAT IS TEAM YAC? Teenage Young Carers face additional challenges in life as they move towards adulthood, as they consider exam options, think about moving to further education, apprenticeships or straight into work – and of course this is all with the peer pressure that comes from being a teenager. Our YAC programme is designed to provide the young adult carers with information, confidence and new skills as well as helping them to develop friendship groups that will help them through their challenging teenage years. The YACs are encouraged to plan and decide what activities and trips will be included in the programmes. The YAC programmes we deliver to the 14-18 year age group, including the holiday respite programmes have a number of clear objectives:
AMBITION Some young carers struggle to reach their full potential through mainstream education often resulting in limited ambition for their adult lives. Hardly any of young adult carers receive advice on transferable skills they have gained as a result of caring for family members. An important aspect of the programme is to recognise and develop these skills and encourage more ambition.
16
INDEPENDENCE Our aim is to encourage independence, so the young adult carers have confidence when joining in social activities and generally taking control of their own lives.
IN TO WORK PROGRAMME This aspect of the work we undertake offers young adult carers the opportunity to go explore a wide range of job opportunities, methods of entry into these workplaces and is generally designed to inspire more challenging aspirations.
SKILLS FOR LIFE All the activities we provide for young adult carers are designed to try and use the various skills they have, usually enhanced skills because of their caring role, to illustrate how these can be used as skills for life, irrespective of their choice at the age of 18 with regards to continuing in further education or moving into employment.
FRIENDSHIP GROUPS It is well known that young carers often find it difficult to create friendship groups in which they are confident to discuss and explain the challenges in their lives or at least have friends who appreciate the challenges they have. It is often difficult to take part in friendship group activities which can lead to friction and the breakdown of friendships. From experience we have learnt that by linking young adult carers together they often form strong friendship groups based on a common understanding, often without the need to discuss their specific challenges but with a general attitude of accepting people as they are.
17
WINTER PROGRAMME 2021 PROJECT REVIEW
CHESHIRE YOUNG CARERS Registered Charity no. 1151399 Northern Lights Business Park, Rossfield Road, Ellesmere Port, CH65 3AW
Tel: 0151 356 3176 info@cheshireyoungcarers.com
www.cheshireyoungcarers.org @cheshireyoungcarers
@CYC_youngcarers
@cheshireyoungcarers
Cheshire Young Carers Cheshire Young Carers
