Carers Week this year has the theme of ‘make caring visible and valued’. Our Carer Friendly Tick Awards are given to organisations that have standards in place to identify and support carers.
With Carers Week from 7 – 13 June we have asked people from some of the organisations who hold the Carer Friendly Tick Award to tell us something about what they are doing – how they are ensuring caring is visible and valued year-round.
MTM Youth Services CIC
Harry Town is director at MTM Youth Services CIC. He explained:
MTM Youth Services CIC have worked with young carers since 2011 when we held the Norfolk County Council young carers contract (through MAP) and hence have identified numerous young carers on that, and all our other youth work projects. We are proud holders of the Carer Friendly Tick Award and currently deliver the Young Carers and Families contract for Breckland and South Norfolk. We also support the Young Carers Forum via our contract delivering the South Norfolk YAB (Youth Advisory Board).
All of our young carers workers are selected due to their experience in working with young people, and their experience in working with Young Carers when selected for our Young Carers project. They must be passionate, dedicated, considerate, empathetic, friendly, safe, knowledgeable and reliable. All youth workers on all of our youth work projects sign up to our Young Carers’ Agreement.
We strive to identify young carers as it’s important for them to get any help they need so that they have time to do the things they want to do as a young person. We help young carers realise that it’s important to look after yourself; you may not have as much free-time as other young people, feel isolated and miss spending time with friends, and get stressed out thinking about the person you care for.
We know that the youth work we do with young carers has helped them with struggles at school, has enabled them to enjoy being a young person again and helped them access support, guidance and opportunities. This has enabled the young carers and the people they care for to live more fulfilling lives.
Thanks to all the young carers out there and we look forward to all the great youth work and positive activities we’ll do with you in the future; you deserve it!
More about the Carer Friendly Tick Award
The Carer Friendly Tick Award is an accreditation, comprising of four key areas: Communities, Education, Employers and Health.
The award is assessed by carers and intended to be simple to understand and implement. It takes only a few steps but makes a real difference for carers. It is designed to help those who are unsure of how to identify and support carers in your setting or, for those already supporting carers, a way to recognise their great work.
The Carer Friendly Tick Award for each category is designed to provide organisations with an emphasis on local and relevant standards which carers feel are necessary to ensure they are easily identified and properly supported within the that environment.
For more information about the Carer Friendly Tick Award please visit caringtogether.org/carer-friendly-tick or email [email protected]
We can talk to you about how we can support you through the Carer Friendly Tick Award, including delivering awareness training and with our toolkits for each category.
