Young Carers

Next month Westminster Carers Service and the West End Community Trust are putting on a summer fete in Soho Square in aid of their respective Timebanks. Timebanks are a unique way for people to come together and share their skills and knowledge, so come along and learn more about it!

This promises to be a great day, so make sure you scratch June 19th into your diary. There will be strawberries and cream to get you in a summery mood, as well as live music and games. If you’re feeling adventurous you could also take part in a race around the square!

More than anything, this is a great excuse to have fun, enjoy the sun and find out about the Timebank. It’s on from 10am-5pm, so if you have school or college that day you can come by afterwards.

We look forward to seeing you there!

It’s competition time!

Over the next 6 weeks we are inviting all young carers in Westminster to send us some of their creative work. This could be a short story or poem, a sketch or photograph or any other creative, artistic piece.

You can be as imaginative as you want – we are just looking for original, interesting work that’s your own!  All submissions will be judged at the end of May, when we’ll be giving out prizes for great work. First prize is a £20 Argos voucher, so get creative!

You can submit your work online by uploading it through our website here, or you can send it to us. You can find our address here.

Whatever your work, we’d love to see it so please get stuck in and send us something special. Good luck!

Staff of WCS and 12 young carers recently enjoyed a fast and furious day of go karting at the Oasis Children’s Venture in Stockwell.

The go karts were low to the ground, really quick and tons of fun, and as the day went on we all got faster and faster!

Apart from a few funny bumps there weren’t too many crashes and after lunch we all headed home in one piece (thankfully), eager for more karting in the future!

The Easter holidays are nearly upon us and we’ve got stacks of great activities planned. We’ll be doing go karting, swimming, a variety of sports and putting our creative minds to use with music and arts and crafts sessions.

Most of these activities will be held at the Fourth Feathers Youth Centre in Marylebone, who have generously offered their activities to our young people. So, if any of these take your fancy, get in contact with us and we’ll see what we can do. In the meantime, Happy Easter!

Live in Westminster? Under 19 years old? Enjoy free sports? If so, get yourself an ActiveWestminster Passport for free archery, tennis, volleyball and more.

All you have to do is click here, print off and fill out the application form and take it to one of the sports centres listed. Details of what’s on offer and the great things you can get involved with can be found here.

If you’re a young carer in Westminster and need help printing or filling out the form, why not contact us for help.

On February 14th and 15th Westminster Young Carers Service joined up with art charity Create, to put on two fantastic days of box sculpturing.

Using art from Native American totem poles as inspiration, the young carers practiced their drawing and painting skills before crafting 3D animals out of large cardboard boxes. At the end of day two the boxes were stacked-up to make our own unique, modern totem poles.

There was some brilliant, imaginative work produced and a great time had by all.

This half term saw our young carers doing a range of fun activities.

On Thursday 16th a large group of us went to the Stubbers Adventure Centre in Essex, where we took part in archery competitions and some pretty scary abseiling!

Another highlight of the day was driving argocats – 8 wheeled all-terrain cars that we drove around some very muddy tracks! It was a terrific day that was enjoyed by everyone and we’re looking forward to similar events later this year.

If you’re a young carer living in Westminster and have an idea for a great activity you’d like to do let us know through our contact page.

The Westminster Young Carers Service has a shiny new Twitter account! We’ll be tweeting about all our news, as well as issues that affect young carers and any upcoming events and activities that we’ve got planned. We’ll also be keeping an eye on some of the great things for young people to do in London and telling you all about them.

You can find us at @WCS_Youngcarers or click here to go straight to our site.

See you there!

The Young Carers team has been busy planning some fantastic activities for the upcoming half-term holiday. First, we are joining forces with the Create art charity for two inspirational days of sculpturing at the Four Feathers Youth Centre on the 14th and 15th February. The very next day we are heading to Stubbers Activity and Adventure Centre in Essex for an energetic day of abseiling, archery, team games and argocats, which we’re really excited about.

If you’re a young carer and have been invited to one of these events, remember to return your consent form as soon as possible as they are now less than two weeks away!