Launch of TOGETHER project

Supporting young carers through a whole family approach.

Young carers are children and young people aged under 18 who are caring, unpaid, for someone who is ill, frail, disabled or has mental health or addiction problems. Young carers can undertake a wide range of caring roles and responsibilities, including emotional support, personal care, housework and household budgeting.

While it has been demonstrated that caring can result in positive outcomes, there is a strong body of evidence showing the adverse impact of caring on health outcomes, social activity, educational engagement and employment opportunities for young carers.

Awareness and identification of young carers is still low and many remain hidden and unsupported. Some families do not recognise their children as ‘carers’, some children do not identify themselves with the caring role, and there can be a degree of reluctance, even anxiety, among families in disclosing caring responsibilities.
It is therefore important to address this issue at EU level, supporting young carers and their families to communicate openly with one another to ensure that young people are supported in their caring roles.

What will TOGETHER do?

The Erasmus+ funded TOGETHER project, over the course of its 24-month duration, aims to raise awareness on young carers and to support them and their families. The main goal is to develop, test and disseminate three intellectual outputs:

1. Awareness raising material to inform children and adults about how important it is to cooperate and be supportive with each other when there are caring responsibilities in the family.
2. A training workshop for young carers and their families, facilitating open dialogue around the caring relationship, the impact this may be having on the young carer and how the whole family can support one another.
3. An e-learning programme for professionals on promoting a whole family approach when supporting young carers.

Our ultimate goal is to have a positive impact on families in order to support young carers; reducing the negative impacts caring responsibilities can bring and improving young people’s well-being, social inclusion and community engagement.

This will be done by helping young carers, their families and professionals to adopt a whole family approach, where family members (including the cared-for person) are encouraged to communicate openly about the caring relationship.

The partnership

TOGETHER project is implemented by a transnational partnership of five organisations from five European countries:

• Carers Trust Scotland from UK, is an organisation working to improve support, services and recognition for unpaid carers, with key projects to support all young carers and young adult carers in Scotland.
• Diakonisches Werk Berlin Stadtmitte (DWBS) from Germany, is a Non-profit institution with expertise in the field of young carers support (Project coordinator);
• EDRA from Greece, is a Non-Profit Organisation-Social Cooperative operating in the field of mental health;
• Anziani E Non Solo from Italy, is an NGO working to support young people with caring responsibilities;
• Eurocarers from Belgium, is the European Network of Carers Organisations and informal carers.

Note to editors

To find out more about the project and to get involved in our future activities, please visit our project website.

For further information, contact Carers Trust Scotland staff:

• Paul Traynor, Policy and External Affairs Manager for Carers Trust Scotland, Tel: 07824 542 964 or email: ptraynor@carers.org.
• Nicola Bell, Youth Engagement Officer for Carers Trust Scotland, Tel: 07827 914
  634 or email: nbell@carers.org.

Together is co-funded by the European Commission under the Grant Agreement 2019-3-DE04-KA205-018801

This publication related to the Project made by the beneficiaries jointly or individually in any form and using any means, shall indicate that it reflects only the author’s view and that the National Agency and the European Commission are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.