The 16th of February sees the return of Care Day, a global event celebrating and highlighting the experiences of children and young people with care experience. First established in 2016, Care Day has since been observed annually on the third Friday of every February, with a focus on raising awareness, challenging the stigma around young people in care, and building connections between and with people with care experience.
Each year, EPIC (Empowering People In Care) chooses a theme for Care Day, with this year’s theme being ‘I Am What I Choose To Become.’ The hope is to inspire young people that they can overcome the challenges they face, embrace a brighter future, and become whatever it is they wish to be.
It’s no secret that many children and young people in care come from disadvantaged or traumatic backgrounds, making them far more vulnerable to fall through the cracks of our nation’s support systems. That’s why it’s so important to provide safe spaces where they can nurture skills and connect with their peers. ICM offers a range of groups to support children and young people, both in and out of care, showing incredible results in improving social behaviours and developing lifelong creative and technological skills to help them succeed in future endeavours. More than anything, Care Day highlights the importance of empowering young people with care experience to become whoever they wish to be.
From our South Street Kids project, helping kids explore creative activities, to New Gen, fostering young people’s musical and technical talents, to Making Waves, our programme devoted to helping inspire at-risk youths to take a positive turn into learning music and media, we are dedicated to improving the emotional wellbeing of the young people in our community, no matter their past or the present difficult challenges they are facing.
We are currently looking for young people aged 16-17 to join our Making Waves programme; if you or anyone you know is interested in learning music and media through our one-to-one and small group sessions, we would love to hear from you. We provide a welcoming environment for those involved to learn at their own pace, and promote positive wellbeing and development especially for young people experiencing difficult challenges in their lives.
We will always do everything in our power to support and empower all children and young people to be the best people they strive to be. People with care experience deserve to be seen and heard, always.
For more information on our Making Waves project, you can contact helen@ipswichcm.org.uk
To learn more about Care day, you can visit these charities and their sites:
To learn more about what we can offer for young people, check out our ‘What We Do’ page.
Thanks to generous funding by the National Lottery’s Reaching Communities Grant, New Gen, South Street Kids, and Making Waves are now partnership projects delivered by Out Loud Music alongside ICM.