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Mayor determined to ease plight of young carers

5:00pm Tuesday 30th June 2009


IMAGINE caring for a relative day in, day out – cooking their food, cleaning and helping them around the house. It can often take its toll on adults. But what about youngsters who have to go to school and care for a family member?

The last Census found there were 175,000 young carers in the UK, 13,000 of those providing more than 50 hours of help a week.

Southend’s new mayor Brian Smith is determined to help. He wants to offer support to young carers in Southend who are devoted to helping family members suffering ill health or physical or mental difficulties.

Mr Smith has set up the Sycamore Fund as his charity for his mayoral year, which aims to raise money in support of primary school age carers in Southend.

The fund will provide a long term friend and mentor as well as a day off from their caring duties while providing support to the person they care for.

Paul Toomey, 18, of Bellhouse Lane, Leigh knows all too well the challenges of juggling the demands of school, meeting friends and caring for a relative.

Paul, who has been caring for his father from the age of 11, is firmly behind Mr Smith’s new fund.

He said: “I think it’s a great opportunity for young people and children in the town to go on trips and activities that they wouldn’t normally be able to do because of their caring roles.

“I care for my dad, he has got depression and mental health issues. For me, being an only child, I didn’t have any brothers or sisters to share the experience with. That’s why I think a mentor would be good, it’s someone to look up to.”

Paul was the deputy youth mayor last year, and is now training to be a youth worker with the Connexions youth service. He also works with Southend YMCA.

He said: “I think this new charity will give young carers a chance to be young people and children, like they’re supposed to be, and they can forget about everything else in the world – just have fun and be themselves.”

The Sycamore fund aims to enlist the help of those aged 16 to 24 involved in volunteering, matching them as mentor and providing friendship and respite. He said he was spurred into action after seeing a charity advert.

Mr Smith said: “There are some really good organisations in Southend already providing respite care for young carers, however, carers between the ages of seven and 11 tend to be withdrawn and less likely to participate in group events.

“I saw an advert by Action for Children on the television that sort of struck me, and then I did a bit of investigating and looking at Southend especially.

“It seems there were a lot of things for children of senior school age but children of primary school age were less likely to get involved in group activities, and that is what gave me the idea to get a mentor for them, to bring them out of themselves.”

Mr Smith said that a similar mentoring scheme has been set up in Nottingham with good results. He said he was hoping a voluntary group in Southend would help him establish the new scheme by mid-July.

He is also raffling his season ticket for Southend Football Club with fans’ charity the Shrimpers’ Trust to raise money for the fund.

Mr Smith said: “Tickets will cost £5 and we are going to split the proceeds between our charity and the trust. It means people have a chance to win a season ticket for £5 and the winner will be drawn on the Blues open day on July 26.”

The charity has already begun fundraising by hosting events in Southend.

Jean Howes, fundraising committee chairman, said: “The mayor is seeking a host organisation within Southend to run the Sycamore Fund and we are working closely with Southend Association of Voluntary Services to identify suitable local voluntary organisations interested in submitting a bid.”

The charity is holding fundraising events over the next few months, starting with a musical evening at St Peter’s Church, Southend, this Friday.

There will also be a strawberry tea, a cheese and wine evening, a ghost walk and a halloween disco.

Information about the charity is available on the Southend Association of Voluntary Services website www.savs-southend.org/ mayor and the closing date for organisations to submit a bid to take a leading role in running the scheme is July 17.

Tickets for the events and more information are available from the mayor’s secretary Denise Simmonett at DeniseSimmonett@southend.gov.uk


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