City of York Council is celebrating the positive impact young people leaving care have on communities across the city during National Care Leavers’ Month (November).
The month-long event aims to raise awareness and celebrate care leavers, with this year's theme being "Rising as Me: Overcoming challenges, transforming, and finding your identity".
Around 30 young people leave the care of the council having lived with local foster carers or in a children’s home, each year in York.
Lauren, a local young care leaver, said:
Growing up in care taught me strength, independence and the belief that my past doesn’t define my future — it shapes it. Leaving care gave me the drive to aim higher and turn challenges into opportunities with the best support from City of York Council.
“Care Leavers Month is about celebrating that resilience and showing every young person that no matter where you start, your goals and dreams are possible.”
Cllr Bob Webb, the council’s Executive Member for Children, Young People and Education, said:
We believe that everyone has a responsibility to help those who have been in care to overcome the difficulties that they’ve experienced in their childhoods, so that they can lead successful lives.
“More than anything else, we recognise that the help and support that young care leavers receive from their corporate parents in York is critical to whether they are able to make the transition from care to independence successfully.
“We take this responsibility very seriously. The saying ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ is never truer than for care experienced young people. It really is critical that they get the support, advice and connections they need from right across the city, whether that’s through their friends and wider family networks, their local communities or businesses, providing work experience or apprenticeships. We all have a part to play in supporting these exceptional young people who are the very future of our city.”
Businesses can find out more about how they can support care experienced young people in York at https://www.york.gov.uk/BusinessSupportForCareLeavers
The council always need more foster carers to provide local children with safe, loving homes. To find out more about how you could change a child’s life through fostering visit https://fostering.york.gov.uk/