Young Carers Awareness Day is changing
Find out more about Young Carers Action Day 2021.
When Carers Trust set up Young Carers Awareness Day our intention was to make the public much more aware of young carers – who they are, what they do, the very real challenges they face, and why they need support.
And over the years, we’ve had some great successes, using the media and social media to really shine a spotlight on young carers.
But as Young Carers Awareness Day has got bigger each year, we’ve also realised there are things we can do to make it better. And many young carers themselves have told us how they think the day could be improved.
We wanted to use that feedback from young carers and people working with young carers to make the day even better. So this year we are making some changes based on the feedback we have received. These changes are explained below.
We hope you agree these will make the day even better in 2021, and help create real change for young carers and the support they receive!
We are changing the name!
One of the things we are always hearing from young carers is that what they want is support, not sympathy.
This got us thinking. Yes, it’s great to raise public awareness of young carers and what they do. But we need to do more than just encourage public sympathy for young carers and everything they have to do at home. We need to use the day to get people to take action to support young carers.
So from 2021 onwards, we are changing the name to Young Carers Action Day.
We will be working with a group of young carers to ensure Young Carers Action Day 2021 features activities that will encourage real action and drive positive change for young carers.
We are changing the date!
Up to now, the day falls at the end of January. With the day coming so soon after Christmas, we’ve noticed it’s easy to lose momentum due to the Christmas holidays. So from 2021 onwards we will be holding Young Carers Action Day in March.
We will still be making all materials ready by the end of November and we hope this will give young carers, teachers and other professionals plenty of time to plan some really great activities for March.
Young Carers Action Day 2021 will take place on 16 March 2021.
We are including young adult carers
Until now, the day has been for young carers up to the age of 18.
But one of the things our recent survey of young carers and young adult carers showed us is that young people aged 18 to 25 are experiencing many of the same challenges as younger carers.
Young adult carers need support too as they continue to balance their caring role with the difficult transition into early adulthood. So we will be planning activities and media coverage for this really important group of carers too!
And we are working with young carers and young adult carers to plan Young Carers Action Day 2021
Carers Trust has set up a working group including young carers and young adult carers that is working actively to plan activities and media coverage for Young Carers Action Day 2021. With young carers at the heart of planning, we will ensure that Young Carers Action Day 2021 delivers activities most likely to create positive change for young carers that addresses their needs.
Got a question?
We realise that these are fairly significant changes and you may have questions. If there is something you’d like to ask, or raise, we’d love to hear from you!
Please feel free to get in touch with Vicky Morgan, Head of Young Carers and Young Adult Carers.
