For my Barmitzvah Project I have chosen to support Live Unlimited (a charity that dedicated to supporting young people in care in my local area). I wanted to use the occasion to learn and understand about the different experiences of other young people as they go through their teens.

My project was to think about how to help the charity to raise awareness of the work they do. How to promote in school and also through my community, the ways that the charity helps looked-after children to feel cared for and less isolated. Reading their website and talking to the charity staff I learned about the mentoring and support services, as well as funding they provide for accessing extra-curricular opportunities and the chance to take up hobbies or learn new skills. All the sorts of help and support that a birth family might have provided for their child.

When learning about the experiences of children in care, one example story I heard about was of a child being met at the end of a school day by a social worker and discovering they were unable to go back home. There was just a black bin bag of their stuff grabbed from the home, with everything else left behind. That sounds really upsetting and scary, and I would want there to be more people doing things to help make these experiences less scary and lonely for other children. And to know there were people trying to help make life with their new families a bit better, like the work Live Unlimited does.

To find out more about this charity and to hear about the ways it has helped other young people in recent years, please visit their website:

https://www.liveunlimited.org.uk