On the afternoon of the 16^th March 19 young carers aged between 10 and 21 years old, from across Gloucestershire, joined the GYC team to share their thoughts, feelings, ideas and experiences with 50 delegates in our first ever online Twilight Conference. Professionals from educational settings, health, social care and funders joined us virtually to hear first-hand from young carers as we channelled this year’s theme – ‘Taking Action on Isolation’.

Delegates listened to presentations from the team with spotlights on our different services, watched a powerful film documenting our 2-year pandemic journey at GYC and then were able to attend a choice of 5 interactive workshops cocreated with young carers.

These covered subjects such as support in education, the isolation of being a young adult carer, why sibling carers matter, and experiences of caring for someone with mental ill-health and substance misuse. Feedback from delegates was very positive:

‘It was good to hear from Young Carers and what they need from us’

‘Really gave me an insight into the challenges faced by young carers transitioning into adult life’.

‘Great information clearly presented as to why sibling young carers matter too’

‘It was very informative and has already got me thinking about how we can improve support for young carers’

‘Well put together and the young people were fantastic!’

‘Brilliantly done using the best tools you could virtually’

GYC Operations Manager Ele Semadeni said "We would like to thank all the young carers who took part in GYC's first online conference for their inspiring workshops sharing how professionals can best support them. A huge well done and thank you to the GYC team for all their hard work making this important event happen on Young Carers Action Day 2022."

We would like to thank Mary Hutton, NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group Accountable Officer, for allowing young carers to use the fantastic facilities at Sanger House to safely come together to deliver GYC's conference.