Council supports care leavers week
Plymouth City Council is proud to support National Care Leavers week 23 – 31 October 2014.
The theme this year is “New belongings” and invites policy makers, practitioners, service providers and communities to pause and think what it might be like to be one of those care leavers starting out.
Everyone engaged in thinking about, or providing services that these vulnerable young adults might need to access from time to time can be be part of raising awareness, creating opportunities, and promoting understanding.
There are lots of roles that care leavers can fulfil, and places they can fit. By making sure everyone works together to support them and welcome them into their adult lives we can make sure the transition from care to living an independent adult life is successful.
Councillor Sue McDonald Cabinet member for Children, Young People and Public Health said: "We want the best for the children in our care and care leavers are a uniquely vulnerable group of young people. They are at a critical time in their lives when they need all the support they can get as they move towards independence. By making sure these young people feel like they belong in the community we can help them on a path to a successful career and a happy and fulfilled future."
There are several ways Plymouth City Council’s youth services team supports care leavers including:
• Personal Advisor one to one support
• Independent Living Skills programme
• Financial support to access higher education
• Support to link in wider services in young people’s local community
• Support around accommodation, education training and employment, managing finances, access to positive activities
• Mentoring service providing individuals with extra support
Dan left care in February 2013 when he turned 18. He said: “If I didn’t have the support from the Care Leavers team I don’t know where I’d be. They have helped me to get into different projects such as the supported living project which is helping me at the moment. I wouldn’t feel part of the community if I didn’t have the help I would feel lost.”
Another 19 year old care leaver said: “It's important that young adults like me and so many others, have the support of professionals to ensure we adjust well and start living independently.”
National Care Leavers Week 2014 will focus on the need for value and importance of a feeling of being someone who belongs. Children and young people can be separated from so much that the rest of us take for granted when they come into care; family, school, friends and often extended family too. Abby Chu, Care Leavers Team Leader said: "The experience of care itself can be a roller coaster. Some children, removed from very adverse experiences in early childhood, find a safe haven in care, and enjoy stable, settled placements which enable them to put down new roots; others experience care as a period in their lives of turbulence, chaos, and disruption, devoid of enriching experiences or any continuity or joy. Most will experience a second traumatic uprooting, often as traumatic as the first, when they have to leave care and embark on the journey towards establishing themselves in adult life, often at the very young ages of 16, 17 or 18.”
