Young Carers Festival

Children and young people from across the UK come to Fairthorne Manor for a weekend at the end of June each year to take part in the Young Carers Festival. Young carers are children and young people who look after parents and other relatives who are disabled or live with a range of debilitating conditions.

Groups of young carers and their project leaders from across Hampshire are joined by 1,500 others who travel from as far away as Scotland to attend the festival.

For young carers, the festival is an opportunity to forget their responsibilities and have fun.

A packed weekend programme of activities, organised jointly by YMCA Fairthorne Group and The Children’s Society, includes outdoor pursuits, fireworks, a carnival, arts activities and a disco.

Express FM, an on-site radio station involving the young carers is able to be picked up across much of Southern Hampshire during the festival weekend. Programmes include young carers interviewing MPs from around the country over the telephone. Messages of support from celebrities are also broadcast.

Young carers at the festival meet with teachers and other professionals to explain how schools, health and social services could offer better support. There is also an opportunity for young carers to get an update on progress made in asking government to support young carers. At the 2003 festival young carers signed a 40-foot letter demanding a meeting with the Minister for Children Margaret Hodge to ask for more help and support.

The 2004 festival had a ‘celebrate’ theme. Young Carers celebrated the five years of the festival, and the extent of the consultative and lobbying work that has come out it in an effort to raise young carers issues nationally.

The official number of children under 18 providing care for a family member in the UK is 175,000, and it is believed there could be many more who are hidden from the rest of society. Over 13,000 young carers provide care for more than 50 hours a week, and 1,000 of these are between five and seven years old.

Young carers interested in coming to the festival should ask the organiser of their nearest Young Carers Group if they can organise a trip.

If you would like to volunteer either before, during or after the festival, click here for an information/application pack.