Children and Families – Page 156 – The NEN

New charity aims to tackle legacy of grief from Covid-19

Apart of Me, the design-led company that supports young people and their families through the heartbreak of grief via a mobile App, has received a double-boost as it seeks to help those suffering loss from the pandemic.

Firstly, their application to become a charity was not just approved, but fast-tracked by the Charity Commission. The Commission acknowledged both the importance of the serviceto children and young people affected by grief and the time-sensitive nature of the work given the legacy of loss caused by Covid-19.

In a second piece of good news for the charity, it was announced today that they had been named winners in the London Mayoral Resilience Fund, a scheme set up by Mayor Sadiq Khan to help the capital city bounce back against Coronavirus.

Apart of Me has been appointed to run projects to help young people in London bereaved due to coronavirus. The charity’s aim is to apply the same clinical approach and methods they use in their award-winning App to help young people combat their grief.

Apart of Me launched in 2018 as an innovative app-based adventure game that helps bereaved children use their mobile phones or tablets to help cope with the grief and confusion caused by the loss of a loved one.

“When we launched Apart of Me a couple of years ago, little did we know how badly it would be needed today, with so many children and young people left grieving for loved ones as a result of Covid-19,” said Louis Weinstock, the child psychologist who co-founded the organisation with tech entrepreneur Ben Page in 2018.

“Whilst all the talk at the moment is of our desire to return to normality, millions of children around the world have lost parents, grandparents and care-givers from this pandemic. They need our support.”

Acknowledging their new charitable status, Weinstock said, “Charity means ‘compassion’. Having our registration expedited by the Charity Commission not only confirms the urgency of our mission, but it will also allow us to fundraise and accelerate towards our goal of helping every grieving young person transform their grief into compassion.”

From the outset the goal for Apart of Me was to combine bereavement-counseling techniques with 3D animation and gaming developments to create an app-based game that could help children and young people find a path through grief to compassion. Since then, the app has been downloaded nearly 100,000 times, receiving critical acclaim from clinical leaders and those who have used it.

Henry, who was 18 when his father died of cancer, describes the impact the game had on him. “Apart of Me was my guiding light in the dark when I felt incredibly alone, lost and confused. It helped me to understand what I was going through and took the loneliness of the whole experience away.”

A worldwide focus on mental health in recent years has seen established game developers attempt to tackle the concepts of anxiety and self-worth head-on.

Apart of Me have been pioneers in this field with Louis and Ben collaborating with 126 skilled volunteers around the world to build their app, which was highlighted as a best-in-class app for safe and accessible support by Good Thinking, London’s Digital Mental Wellbeing Service (backed by the London Mayor’s office, Public Health England, London councils, the NHS and ThriveLDN).

Louis’ work has previously been acknowledged by the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, under the Government’s ‘Points of Light’ scheme.

In a personal letter to Louis, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “I know you do this with no thought of praise or reward, but allow me to offer my own recognition of how you have created innovative, accessible grief counselling which has supported thousands of young people in the UK and abroad.”

One million children in key worker households live in poverty

New research published by the TUC (produced by Landman Economics) finds that over a million children of key workers are currently living in poverty.

The research, which used the government definition for key workers, found that in some regions more than a quarter of children in key worker households are living in poverty.

Key worker families in the North East have the highest rate of child poverty (29%), followed by London (27%), the West Midlands (25%) and Yorkshire and the Humber (25%).

Government policies could worsen key worker poverty

The TUC says the main reasons for key worker family poverty are low pay and insecure hours – factors that often coincide in occupations such as care workers, delivery drivers or supermarket staff.

High housing costs further reduce keyworker family budgets for essentials like groceries and utility bills. And support through Universal Credit is not enough to guarantee families avoid poverty.

Current government policies are likely to increase child poverty rates. Ministers have capped pay rises for key workers in the public sector, which in some cases will mean real wage losses. And the chancellor is planning to cut Universal Credit for low-income families by £20 per week in October.

The TUC warns that these policies will put the brakes on the nation’s economic recovery by curbing household spending. This will restrain business activity, and impact on wage growth for other workers across the economy.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Every key worker deserves a decent standard of living for their family. But too often their hard work is not paying off like it should. And they struggle to keep up with the basic costs of family life.

“The prime minister has promised to ‘build back fairer’. He should start with our key workers. They put themselves in harm’s way to keep the country going through the pandemic. Now, we must be there for them too.

“This isn’t just about doing right thing by key workers. If we put more money in the pockets of working families, their spending will help our businesses and high streets recover. It’s the fuel in the tank that our economy needs.”

Support needed for key worker families

The TUC is calling on the government to guarantee decent living standards for key worker families by:

Raising the national minimum wage to £10 per hour immediately.
Ending the freeze on public service workers’ pay and give all public service workers a decent pay rise.
Funding the public sector so that all outsourced workers are paid at least the real Living Wage and get parity with directly employed staff.
Canceling the £20 cut to Universal Credit, which is set to hit low-income families in October, and set out plans to increase child benefit above inflation each year across the parliament.

– Children in poverty in key worker households by UK nation and region

Region	Children in poverty in key worker families	Proportion of children in poverty in key worker families
North East	56,198	29.1%
North West	101,481	18.1%
Yorks & the Humber	100,214	24.9%
East Midlands	80,653	21.2%
West Midlands	111,577	25.2%
East of England	83,719	15.5%
London	164,548	26.5%
South East	143,372	18.7%
South West	66,678	15.6%
Wales	60,378	23.4%
Scotland	74,376	18.7%
TOTAL	1,062,586	20.6%

It’s for your benefit: Five family payments

Peter Capaldi to host Voices 2021 creative writing competition for children in care/care leavers

The charity Coram Voice will celebrate the awards ceremony of Voices 2021, its national creative writing competition for children in care and young care leavers, virtually again this year due to ongoing pandemic restrictions.

The ceremony will be streamed on the Coram Voice YouTube channel from 5pm tomorrow (14 July) and will be co-hosted by award-winning Scottish actor and former Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi, a long-standing supporter of the competition, and Voices 2019 winner Sophia Hall.

It will also feature members of the competition judging panel announcing this year’s winners, including the children’s authors Abi Elphinstone and Cynthia Murphy, novelist Kirsty Capes and the poet Joelle Taylor.

Peter Capaldi said: “It is an honour to host the Voices awards ceremony again this year. The competition is a fantastic opportunity to showcase the creativity and talent of care-experienced young people and builds greater understanding around their lives and experiences.”

Sophia Hall said: “I am delighted to be co-hosting this year’s award ceremony with Peter. I’m a proud care experienced person, but that wasn’t always the case. I used to hide the fact I was in care, and never really spoke about it when I was a teenager.

“Today, after being encouraged by organisations such as Coram, my peers, and the wider community, I embrace my experience as an important and integral part of my identity. The Voices competition means a lot to me because it’s all about encouraging young people in care to use their voices, and encouraging non-care experienced people to listen”.

This year marks the sixth anniversary of the Voices competition, which is sponsored by UK management consultancy Cadence Innova.

The competition received over 250 entries on the theme of ‘What Makes Life Good’ submitted from across the country. Just 24 of these have been shortlisted over four age categories: primary (age 4-10), lower secondary (age 11-14), upper secondary (age 15-17) and care leavers (age 18-25).

Brigid Robinson, Managing Director of Coram Voice, said: “The uncertainty and disruption of the pandemic has made the past year incredibly challenging for many children and young people in and leaving the care system.

“But reading the competition entries, we have been so inspired by the stories and poems that show how children and young people are using their strength and creativity to deal with these difficult experiences. Their motivation and resilience is an inspiration to all.

“I want to congratulate all the young people who entered this year’s competition. This is your night, and we are delighted to be able to host the awards online so that we can all celebrate together and share the talents of every young person who took part.”

Gary Ashby, Founding Partner at Cadence Innova, the Headline Sponsor of Voices 2021, said: “It is our third year sponsoring the Voices competition and we are delighted to be working with Coram once again. The Voices Awards champion children’s creativity and development and we are immensely proud to be a part of this inspiring contest. We hope that the artistic exploration of this year’s topic – What makes life good – will not only help the participants explore their creative sides, but also grow their confidence for the future.”

To find out more about the Voices 2021 competition and how you can tune in on 14 July, please visit coramvoice.org.uk/voices.

Support for Circle from Farmers Foundation

We are so pleased and extremely grateful, that the Farmer’s Foundation has offered to fund our School’s Mentoring Project for the next three years.

This involves a generous gift of £105,000 to Circle and to vulnerable children in the North of Edinburgh.

Thank you!

Police issue keep children safe plea following road accidents

Road policing officers would like to remind road users, parents and members of the public the importance of ensuring children are supervised and kept safe near our roads.

There have been several collisions across Scotland in recent weeks, resulting in a number of children being taken to hospital having sustained serious injuries.

Around 6.45pm on Wednesday, 7 July, 2021, a two-year-old child ran onto the road between parked cars on Woodland Crescent in Cambuslang and was struck by a car. She was taken to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital with serious injuries.

On Tuesday, 29 June, a five-year-old boy was taken to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh with serious leg injuries after being struck by a car on the A198 towards Tranent High Street.

A four-year-old child sustained serious leg injuries and was taken to Victoria Hospital for treatment after being struck by a car on Broad Street in Cowdenbeath on Monday, 14 June.

On Wednesday, 9 June, a nine-year-old girl was taken to University Hospital Wishaw for treatment after being struck by a car on Hareleeshill Road in Larkhall.

Chief Inspector Mark Patterson, of Police Scotland’s Road Policing Department, said: “Unfortunately there has been a number of collisions involving children recently, which has resulted in serious injuries.

“Children are some of our most vulnerable road users and their safety is paramount, I would ask all parents and guardians to ensure all children are supervised at all times when near the road, and urge motorists to remain vigilant for child pedestrians, especially in built up areas.

“Police Scotland is committed to improving safety on our roads across the country and we continue to work closely with partners on all aspects of road safety.”

Summer programme at Corstorphine Community Centre

Lots of activities for all at Community Centre

See below for details on how to book your place

Summer Family Adventure: Things to do during the school holidays

Courtesy of Fathers Network Scotland

UK Government launches Rediscover Summer campaign

The campaign highlights a range of activities and opportunities for families, children and young people such as exploring a local museum or discovering a National Cycling Network Trail
Families encouraged to get back out and Rediscover Summer after a year of missed opportunities

The government’s Rediscover Summer campaign has launched to help inspire families to get out and about safely and make the most out of summer.

Whether it’s visiting the places that inspired your favourite books, trying out a new sport or even learning how to code, the campaign will show families that there are plenty of new activities to try wherever they live. Throughout the duration of the campaign, each week of the summer holidays will promote a separate theme from sport and creativity to nature and heritage.

A Save The Children survey has shown how the pandemic has negatively impacted the social lives of our children and young people, with a third of children playing alone more, and a quarter having played less sport since the pandemic, raising concerns about the impact on their well-being.

To help combat this, the government is encouraging families to Rediscover Summer and enjoy the range of leisure activities on offer after a year of missed opportunities.

Tourism Minister Nigel Huddleston said: “Our young people deserve a summer filled with exciting and enriching activities after everything they’ve missed out on as we’ve fought to control the virus.

“We want families to get out there and enjoy what’s on offer, and our Rediscover Summer campaign will help them do that. The summer has been given the best possible start with a terrific England run in the Euros.”

Children and Families Minister Vicky Ford said: “Rediscover Summer will provide families with some fantastic opportunities to get back to the activities they may have missed out on over the last year.

“Our Summer Home Activities list will offer up more free ideas and options for children to stay active and have fun, and our expanded Holiday Activities and Food programme will also help families access opportunities both indoors and outdoors.

“Parents have worked so hard to keep their children entertained so I hope they can take advantage of these to use the holidays creatively, helping to boost children’s wellbeing after what has been a really difficult time.

Launching today, a gov.uk page features a taste of the activities available over the summer to inspire parents and families and help young people get involved in their local communities. The activities suggested range from the Summer Reading Challenge to Chance to Shine cricket sessions and from trips to the Imperial War Museum to Mercury Theatre’s Family sing-a-long.

No matter where you live, the campaign will show there is something for everyone.

Visit the Rediscover Summer guide

Working closely with our partners, including Arts Council England, Sport England and National Museums Greenwich to help promote the breadth of summer activities on offer, this campaign will help get young people out and about this summer and make a difference in their communities.

This campaign will also be supported by the Summer Home Activities List due to be published online in the coming weeks which will inspire activities for families to do in and around their home this summer.

Tag: Children and Families