Young Carers benefit from city music fest

UPDATED

Through the generosity of live music fans, Worcester Music Festival 2014 raised £3,527 for Worcestershire Young Carers (YSS), with HSBC employees from the county adding a further £1,074 to the pot – a grand total of £4,601. The charity supports hundreds of seven to 25-year-olds who help to look after a parent, guardian or sibling within their home – which might be caring for people who have issues with drugs or alcohol or mental health difficulties.

Money raised through the festival went towards helping the charity to offer 1-2-1 support, mentoring, advocacy, information, advice and guidance, as well as run clubs, activities and residential trips to give young carers a break from caring and the opportunity to socialise.

A charity which gives hundreds of young carers across the county respite from what can be an “incredibly stressful” role will benefit from fundraising at Worcester Music Festival 2014.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofFatYwBh-g

Neil Phillips, key worker for the Droitwich-based good cause, said, as a former professional musician and music tutor himself, he was particularly excited about the news.

“I was absolutely over the moon when I heard and jumped around the office,” he said. “According to research, there is the equivalent of one young carer in every classroom in the country and being the festival’s charity will help to raise awareness of this overlooked issue.”

While the charity – a YSS service – receives funding from the local council to pay for a basic staff team, it has to fundraise for everything else. Money raised during the three-day Worcester Music Festival from August 29-31 will also help to realise a particular dream.

“There is an annual national carers’ festival in Southampton, which we couldn’t afford to take our carers to last year, and we’re hoping the festival donation will help to make this happen,” said Neil. “Money aside, several of our carers are talented musicians, including a gifted drummer and keyboardist, and we have access to the YSS training centre in Carden Street in Worcester, which has a very basic recording studio and ‘well-loved’ instruments.

“We hope the partnership with the festival will help support these talented, young people.

Lisa-Marie Everall, Worcester Music Festival’s charity co-ordinator, said the committee had been inspired by the charity’s dedication to offering 1-2-1 support, mentoring, advocacy, information, advice and guidance, as well as running clubs, activities and residential trips to give young carers a break from caring and the opportunity to socialise.

“At the last count, there were nearly 3,000 young people in Worcestershire providing some level of care to a parent, grandparent, sibling or other family members, a role which can be incredibly stressful,” she said. “We hope the community will get behind this brilliant cause.”

Worcestershire Young Carers, which holds a monthly club at Perdiswell Young People’s Centre in Worcester, has also made a film to highlight the work that the young people do. Musicians interested in helping with music to accompany the film or who would like to support the young carers in their music-making should email Neil at neil.phillips@yss.org.uk.