New charity launched for Ireland’s care leavers
The Care Leavers’ Foundation has been able to assist young care leavers in Northern Ireland since it began its UK grant-giving programme in 1999. Now activities have been extended to the Republic of Ireland. Care Leavers Ireland is a new charity modelled on the UK charity and will make grants to Irish care leavers based on the same simple principles of good parenting. Children brought up in public care start their adult lives with a whole panoply of disadvantages and many have no family at all to turn to. As parents we support our own children well into their twenties. There is always a bed to return to if things have gone wrong, a few quid to help get a new flat in shape, or a regular top up to help with study costs. Care leavers often have no-one they can turn to and sometimes a modest grant can make all the difference.
Care Leavers Ireland will make small grants to care leavers up to the age of 29 to meet a range of needs. Grant funding will be available to care leavers both to promote aspiration and to ameliorate hardship. With the average age for children leaving home for good at somewhere between 24 and 29 across Europe (one study suggests roughly 25 for young women and 29 for young men), it is small wonder that children struggle to make this one-way transition to adult life at 16,17 or 18. Leaving care with no family to provide support, and no safety net to fall back on is tough. We know that many young care leavers in Ireland don’t manage particularly well and care leavers are over represented in many sub groups of social disadvantage such as prison populations, mental health users and long term unemployed.
Care Leavers Ireland was announced during National Care Leavers’ Week 2008 and had its official launch in Ireland at the Registered Managers’ conference in Galway. Brian Crowley, Managing Director of social care and health staffing solutions company TTM provided €2,000 in a generous bid to kick off the fundraising and this was matched by a donation from complex needs provider Simplicitas. The aim is to raise €12,000 by the end of 2008 and the fund will be open to applicants from January 2009.
Small grants which help a young care leave to get through college or university, or enable them to provide basic furnishings for their first flat can make a big difference in their lives. If you’ve left care and you are thinking about looking for a job, or starting a college course, this can be hard if you are returning to a bare empty flat with no bed to sleep on and no means of washing your clothes. For a young care leaver who has made it onto the ladder of higher education, having a laptop of your own, like most of the other students, and a couple of hundred Euros each term just to keep you out of debt and ensure you can buy the course books you need can significantly improve a care leavers’ chance of successfully completing their degree. Help might be provided to care leavers who are struggling to purchase the clothes that they need on a low income. Smart clothes for an important interview, or something warm for the winter. Support could be given towards taking a driving test if this was a necessary requirement for a job, as this is a way of helping care leavers to pull themselves out of poverty. If it’s something you would do for your own grown up child, Care Leavers Ireland would like to be able to do the same for a care leaver. Of course to do that a significant pot of money will be needed.
The fund was launched with a donation of €2,000 by Ennis businessman Brian Crowley of TTM, Ireland’s biggest health and social care staffing agency and matched by care company Simplicitas. Crowley has pledged to raise a further €8,000 by the end of the year from local businesses and the fund will open to applicants early in the New Year. Care Leavers Ireland will eventually need to raise in the region of €30,000 a year to meet the level of applications that is anticipated once the grants scheme becomes widely known.
To find out more about Care Leavers Ireland, or to make a donation, contact janet.rich@thecareleaversfoundation.org or visit www.thecareleaversfoundation.org
The Care Leavers' Foundation
PO Box 202
Bala
LL23 7ZB
Registered Charity Number: 1081410
Spring Digital