For Carers Week 2016 Create is celebrating its amazing carer friendly partner organisations. Today we’d like to introduce you to Winchester & District Young Carers (WDYC), who we’ve worked with since 2015 on two art:space programmes.

WDYC supports young people who take on caring responsibilities for an unwell or disabled family member. It provides respite activities, support groups, one-to-one sessions and family support. A dedicated schools worker also provides weekly lunchtime drop-ins, one-to-one sessions and advocacy in all the Winchester Secondary Schools.

Create’s art:space programme, funded by British Land, provides the opportunity for young carers to develop creative thinking through art forms including film, animation and dance. The workshops enable them meet other young carers and develop social skills including teamwork and communication, gain self-confidence and self-esteem, and have fun.

“All the staff and artists have been great, very committed and organised. They make working in partnership very easy.”

Anna hutchings, WDYC

A partnership with Whiteley Shopping, art:space Winchester culminated last night in a celebration of the young carers’ work, including their dance performance and the screening of a film and animations that they created earlier in the year. This enabled them to share their achievements with friends, family and the wider public, absolutely fitting during during Carers Week.

Nicky Goulder, Chief Executive of Create, said the peformance was a great success: “It was an absolute pleasure to see the young carers performing their original dance piece and sharing the surreal films they had made. They had clearly been inspired by the “Who Am I?” theme and their visits to Whiteley Shopping Centre and I loved seeing how much they enjoyed performing – and how proud they and their families were. The Deputy Mayor of Winchester presented them with certificates and thanked them not just for their inspiring performance but for the work they do in their role as carers. It was a privilege to share such a special evening with this exceptional group of young people and a fitting celebration of their talents and creativity during Carers Week.”

Meet Cara

Research conducted by Carers Trust shows that although 55% of young carers are proud of the role they fulfil, 44% feel tired and 48% feel stressed because of their responsibilities. art:space has been designed to provide young carers with a much-needed creative and social outlet, giving them vital “me time” away from their caring responsibilities.

Cara (not her real name) helps her mum care for her older sister, who has brain damage, epilepsy, learning difficulties and scoliosis. She has recently taken part in art:space and told us about her caring role and what creativity means to her:

“My sister has the learning age of a 4-6 year old although she’s actually 20, so I play with her, keep her happy, help her get changed and give her medicine. It’s difficult to get away because I spend a lot of time with my sister, otherwise I’m leaving my mum alone and she needs my help.

“As young carers, we have more responsibilities than other people our age. It’s out of the norm because we look after someone who traditionally we wouldn’t have to look after. Siblings without caring responsibilities don’t dress each other or help each other eat as they develop into young adults. It has made me grow up a lot quicker. I would say that I’ve probably been in hospital more times than other young people because of my sister’s health and that has been quite scary.

“Being creative makes me really happy. It gives me a chance to get away from the stress, even if it’s just for a little while. Create’s workshops have enabled me to have fun with my friends and learn something new together. When it’s stressful at home, I come and do this three-day workshop and it takes my mind off it.”

Anna from WDYC

Anna Hutchings, Activities and Support Coordinator at WDYC, said: “We’ve worked with Create to provide the young people with three day workshops in photography, music, animation and film making. All of them have been very successful, they have given the young carers a much needed break and the chance to learn new skills whilst making friends and building confidence.

“As an organisation we have really enjoyed working with Create. All the staff and artists have been great, very committed and organised. They make working in partnership very easy as they are very flexible and communicative every step of the way. We feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with them.”

For more information on WDYC head to their website.

This article is from 2016.

For Carers Week 2016 Create is celebrating its amazing carer friendly partner organisations. Today we’d like to introduce you to Carers Support Merton (CSM) – a charity providing support, advice and respite to young and adult carers – which we’ve worked with since 2012 on programmes for unpaid carers of all ages. Here we highlight the support that CSM offer adult carers in particular, and our collaborative arts programme, creative:voices.

The needs of adult carers using CSM’s services are addressed by its Adult Carers Team: staff who offer information, support and advice. CSM’s Adult Carers Team provides a range of support services: delivering free training and workshops on carers’ rights; helping carers with benefits entitlement and financial difficulty; existing as mediators between carers and agencies; and providing young adult carers with access to education, training and work. Emotional support through a Counselling Service and therapies is also available on a one-to-one basis, with CSM facilitating a space in which adult carers’ views are listened to and concerns and experiences can be shared.

CSM’s group respite activities enable adult carers to take time away from their caring responsibilities; days out, monthly walking and book clubs, social events, and engagement in cultural activities all provide an opportunity to unwind and relax in the company of others.

This is where Create’s relationship with CSM lies: our creative:voices multi-arts project has been integrated into this array of respite activities which, through their interactive nature, enable adult carers to develop new relationships and skills. creative:voices has brought CSM’s adult carers together to explore a variety of art forms, with sessions in creative writing and storytelling, illustration, jewellery making and photography.

According to an NHS report, caring responsibilities are shown to have an adverse impact on the physical and mental health, education and employment potential of those who care, which can result in significantly poorer health and quality of life outcomes. creative:voices offers an enjoyable, stress-free environment away from potential strains to a carer’s health. Research has evidenced that a higher frequency of engagement with arts and culture is generally associated with a higher level of subjective wellbeing (Arts Council England 2014).

Meet Harriet

Harriet (not her real name) has been attending CSM for 13 years. Last year, she took part in our creative:voices storybook writing and illustration workshops. She talked to us about her caring role and time on the project:

“I started attending Carers Support Merton for support reasons, really, so I knew that I would be linked with people who happen to be in a similar situation. There is the opportunity here to learn from each other by knowing each other and an opportunity for friendships with other families with special needs/issues. My son has autism, which means he does need, or has needed in the past, quite a bit of supervision and organisation. Finding things for him to do in the holidays is more complex so it’s useful to be here and to get information, which I would not otherwise know about.

“I was told about the creative:voices project by a staff member and they asked if I would like to join it. The workshops have been very high quality and I’m very impressed with how organised it has been.

I haven’t done anything like this project before. It has made me realise that, even after so many years of having so many commitments with our children, it is still possible for us to do stuff like this! It’s a confidence builder and it’s very welcome in our lives. If another project like this comes up I’ll be going.

“Create’s artists have given us a great deal of encouragement, and they have given us all these strategies for how to make a children’s book. Actually to be able to try it out for yourself, make a book of your own, is very useful.

“What I’ve loved about the project is that it’s so diverse and there is such a scope for your own individual creative thinking. It’s also really good to work with someone else and share their ideas; their ideas are good for you and your ideas might be good for them. The workshops give me a sense of satisfaction because you end up with something that you have actually devised and created yourself, along with the other person you have been working with. It’s rewarding.

“Projects like this are really important because we all get together, not necessarily to talk to each other but to do something really useful like this. It gives us an objective. Some people are creative, some people have talents they didn’t know they have. I think that all these projects should be really encouraged everywhere where there are people who perhaps don’t find it that easy. It gives people something different to do and an opportunity to discover new talents.”

For more information on Carers Support Merton head to their website.