Newcastle East Kinship Carers

 Newcastle East Kinship Carers aims to bring together kinship carers and their families.

Kinship care is when a child lives full-time or most of the time with a relative who isn’t their parent. Around half of Kinship Carers are Grandparents. Most children are in kinship care because their parents aren’t able to care for them.

We are a local group and meet every week. It is a good place for Kinship Carers to make new friends and support and learn from each other. We also work to raise awareness about kinship care. (i.e.attend Northumbria University Social Work training)

Importantly we have events and activities for our families to get together and spend time with other children who live with their Grandparents or other relatives. Many children who live with kinship carers have had a very difficult start in life and some have emotional and behavioural difficulties. Making friends and being part of a team with other children who live in similar circumstances is reassuring, especially knowing there are other children like you.

Kinship Carers do not get any special help or financial support. We are a self-funding group and raise all our own funds.

We are keen to get our children more involved in working as a team and planning events. We will arrange for the children to work together as a team at our October half term meeting to plan how to use the grant including a Christmas get together. We think this will support and empower them. We will use the grant to help fund indoor activities with our families over the winter period. We will involve the children in planning the events and choosing what equipment to buy.