Second Periodic Reporting Submitted

The Me-We Consortium has successfully submitted its second periodic report to the European Commission!

Highlights of Year 2 include:

• A total of 40 young carers/former young carers and 124 stakeholders from different fields (social and health care, school, academy, local decision makers/advisors, writers/journalists) were involved in Blended Learning Networks (BLNs) in all six countries.
• young carers workshops were performed in Italy, Netherlands and Sweden.
• A total of 33 young carers/former young carers tested and evaluated the ME-WE app.
• A primary prevention intervention, aimed to strengthen the resilience of Adolescent Young Carers.
• By February 2019 (M14), each national implementation team completed the process of connecting with and contacting relevant stakeholders for the ME-WE project from the health care, social care, education, youth work, sport and culture sectors who are working with vulnerable children and with carers.
• Findings from WP1, 2 and 3 have been translated in layperson terms in a set of policy briefs “Enabling young carers to pursue their goals in life and reach their full potential – converting research findings into policy actions” (one providing a comparison among the project countries, six country-specific briefs).
• A booklet for Adolescent Young Carers has been co-produced, with the active engagement of young carers, namely, experts by experience.

Now that the report has been submitted, we are now in the third and final phase of the Project – continuing to recruit for and delivering the resilience training for adolescent young carers. One of the big challenges all teams are facing is that young carers are too busy caring to realise they need support – this means recruitment is at times challenging. At the same time, the groups that have been completed in Italy have had really positive feedback from the participant adolescent young carers themselves:

“The atmosphere created  within the groups was positive”

“The intervention was a sort of path of greater openness, the climate of reflection and acceptance has led participants to feel at ease, sharing strong personal episodes. This indicates confidence in the context.”

Know any adolescent young carer (15 -17 years) in Italy, Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland or the UK that could benefit from psychosocial support? Don’t hesitate to contact the country teams.