Children's Group and Individual Supporter (Supporting Young Carers in Kirklees ages 8-18)

Barnardo’s is committed to providing ‘Better Outcomes for More Children’. Our children’s services volunteers help the charity to deliver essential services in local communities, providing support to over 300,000 children, young people and their families. This role provides a great opportunity to join our fantastic children’s services and help make a real difference.

Barnardo’s Children’s Group and Individual Supporters work with children and young people on a group and individual basis, to build their self-confidence, skills and positive relationships. The group or individual support could be focused on a particular need, such as confidence building or developing coping mechanisms, or it could be more focused around achieving specific goals, such as building community networks or accessing further education.

We work with children and young people across Kirklees who are young carers - this means they are helping to care for someone (usually in their family) who has an illness and/or disability. The caring responsibilities may be; practical (cleaning, cooking, shopping), emotional (calming someone down, encouraging someone to do things, supporting someone to feel happier), personal (feeding, bathing, dressing). These tasks are above and beyond what a child their age would be expected to do. Many young carers cope really well and can actually benefit form their role but when the caring role does impact we can help. The service provides assessed 1:1 and group support to young carers aged 8 -17. We will also look at if there are other services available to help the young carer and the person with the illness/disability. Our work with young carers aims to reduce or remove the impacts faced due to the caring role.

The volunteer will be required to drive and have access to a car. The role requires transporting children and young people to and from activities and groups.

We are looking for volunteers with a friendly and approachable attitude, who have the ability to engage with children and young people, empowering them to take steps towards improving their situation and achieving their goals.