Young Carers are children and young people who take on adult levels of responsibility to care for another person because of chronic illness, mental ill health, disability or addiction. This level of caring has huge impact on their lives and limits their chances to be children and to embrace the same opportunities as other young people.
Crossroads Young Carers aims to give young carers a break from caring and the opportunity to be children in a supportive environment. It offers support groups, trips and residentials, drop in sessions and support and awareness raising in schools.
The conference, sponsored by Barclays, is taking place because the young carers project is always operating at full capacity. To give young carers the support they deserve we need to build a better network where everyone who comes into contact with a young carer has a part to play.
The message is that everyone who comes into contact with young carers has a part to play in supporting them, as Karen Davies, Children’s Services Officer at Crossroads Care, explains: “Young carers deserve recognition and support to enable them to achieve their potential. This may require additional support at times in their lives. Everyone working with young people needs an awareness of young carers and their needs to enable this to happen. If you only attend one conference this year make it this one.”
We would like people to leave the conference better informed about the challenges that young carers face and to be thinking about ways that they could change their practice to improve support.
The keynote speaker will be Daniel Phelps, who is the Policy and Development Manager for Young Carers, at Carers' Trust. He will be talking about the UK situation around support for young carers and the rights that young carers have in the UK.
Crossroads Young Carers project will then address conference about support on the island.
Daniel will also lead a workshop on identifying hidden young carers as many people who work with young carers; many people who work with young carers may be unaware of their dual role.
Attendees at the conference will have the opportunity to hear about the challenges of caring from young carers.
The conference is taking place on May 9 from 1.30 – 5pm at the Villa Marina, Promenade Suite and is open to anybody who comes into contact with young carers, whether from the public, private or third sector, or the general public. Those interested in attending can email mail@crossroadsiom.org to book space.
