Why?
The ANV AMPLIFY awards aim to champion and recognise the work of children in care councils and care leaver forums. They were held in October 2024 (Amplify – Coram Voice) – Sheffield’s Speak Up Now (SUN) advocacy youth group were nominated for the ‘Participation award’.
What?
The purpose of the group is to work on creative projects and activities to express ourselves and help create positive change within Sheffield Council’s Leaving Care Service both for themselves and others. Their most recent project is the ‘Comfy Cozy Crate’.
In March 2024, the group came together to look over the findings from Sheffield’s recent Bright Spots survey. When it came to the section on ‘Living Independently’, the group felt that there was a lot of work to do around this. Although care leavers are entitled to a ‘Setting up Home Allowance’ , many group members felt they did not have useful household items during their first night in their new home, or spent it on bigger essential purchases such as fridges, leaving them unable to buy other essential items to truly make their house feel like a home. The crate is a laundry basket and the items in it include a Takeaway Voucher for young people’s first night as well as towels and bedding.
What difference did it make?
Senior Managers at the council have been supportive of the project and provided the group with the statistics needed to be able to work out the numbers for their pilot project. There are around 70 young people moving into their first tenancy across the service per year. Therefore, Cidon (a local construction company), have agreed to provide the materials for 70 crates. This shows how impactful this project is going to be over the next year, giving the majority of care leavers a chance to receive a crate.
The project gives hope to care leavers that they can move without worrying about having to finance home comforts. It has empowered the group of young people, as they have seen they can use their stories to help benefit other care experienced young people. SUN members wanted to use this project to help young people in the service to feel less alone on the first night in their new property. Equally, they wanted to support their peers is the same way that non care-experienced young people are supported when they leave home to live independently for the first time.