MYTIME Young Carers Collaborates with Stormbreak to Produce Videos to Support Wellbeing and Reduce Feelings of Loneliness in Younger Young Carers.
MYTIME Young Carers, the Dorset-based charity supporting children and young people caring for family members, has teamed up with stormbreak, a national charity who supports children’s mental and physical health, to deliver a series of short videos to improve mental health through movement for younger young carers, to support their wellbeing and reduce feelings of loneliness.
MYTIME’s CEO, Krista Sharp, says of the collaboration: ‘stormbreak produce incredible videos that support young people with their mental health and wellbeing. At MYTIME, we’re always looking for new ways we can support young carers and collaborating with the stormbreak team was a wonderful opportunity for us.
‘What’s made this project really special is that it’s led by MYTIME young carers who’re aged 16 and above, up to their mid-twenties. They’ve come together and worked so hard; they’ve driven the design and development of these videos and deserve full credit. These young carers worked with the stormbreak team to create a series of ‘stormbreaks’ which are short videos designed to improve mental health through movement for younger young carers.’
Thousands of children across the UK are young carers, meaning they are responsible for looking after a family member who has a disability, illness, mental health condition or who misuses substances, often at great personal cost. MYTIME supports carers as young as five years old, who may be carrying out anything from cooking to doing laundry to physically helping a parent get up and dressed every morning. The responsibility of caring for another person often means these young people miss out on hobbies, seeing friends and other social activities their peers may take for granted.
‘We particularly wanted to reach out to younger young carers as they can often find it challenging to articulate complicated emotions and feelings. We know that young carers provide invaluable support to their families, but lots of people don’t realise how much they really do, because it happens behind closed doors. Lots of young carers can feel isolated, invisible and lonely because they don’t have much time to see friends or because they don’t feel they can talk about their responsibilities.’
The video series, presented by MYTIME’s young adult carers, were produced to support wellbeing and reduce feelings of loneliness as Martin Yelling, stormbreak’s Founder, explains: ‘In this project we really wanted to understand the issues and challenges that young carers face and work with them to produce some stormbreak activities they’d feel proud of but also that would really help other young carers, especially when they might be struggling.
‘Being able to get to know the young carers and to listen to them and hear their voices was a critical part of this project. Together we then produced stormbreak videos designed to support resilience, relationships, hope and optimism, self-care, and self-worth and aim to support wellbeing and reduce feelings of loneliness in younger carers which is so important.
‘We work with movement and encourage children to move too. Today’s children move less than ever before whilst mental health issues are sadly on the rise. This project is both timely and required. The young carers were totally amazing people and our team at stormbreak were dazzled by their commitment and humbled by their attitudes. We hope this project represents the start of many collaborative programmes in the future.’
Krista adds: ‘At MYTIME, we know that no one understands what young carers need better than young carers themselves, so we work hard to place them at the centre of everything we do and to amplify their voices. We also recognise that young carers are incredibly capable young people and that, with the right support, they can achieve amazing things.
‘Watching the young carers working on this project and seeing how they’ve been empowered through this project to channel their experiences into something positive for future generations of young carers is so amazing. It's this, above all else, that we'll be celebrating at the premiere.’