Last Sunday, twenty-one young adult carers joined us for our YACS Xmas Bash at Roots Café, where we had exclusive use to ensure everyone could feel at ease. Cracking off the day was Human Bingo! - we had a couple of new YACs attending which we know is a huge step to make, and as always, our established YACs offered genuine welcomes with everyone mingling and finding out more about one another, ready for the beginning of our workshops.

We wanted to be sure that we provided something for everyone, and its clear from the feedback that we were able to do this, ensuring that each of our individual YACs were able to find something that they really gained from, through having fun, being together, chill and chat time and learning new and old skills. What was wonderful was to see was how much our YACs crammed into the day, yet still having the time to build new and catch up with existing friendships.  

We had four main workshops and an alternative craft and chill area, for those wanting a more relaxed, time out space to chat and create.  

TheMusicWorks kicked off the workshops by helping YACs to create their very own unique song. They jointly decided that the theme of the song would be Christmas. The group split into two – one to write the verse and the other the chorus, coming back together to add percussion to finish off the final piece. A wonderful session of music and singing enjoyed by all.  

Rai from Dragon Martial Arts Gloucester, very kindly donated his time and expertise in teaching some basic self-defence moves. A gentle warm-up lead us into practising some blocking, kicking and break away techniques. Galina our talented volunteer, guided the YACs to create such beautiful charcoal and chalk drawings, focusing on light and dark shading. Some lovely creations were made in a short space of time for them to take home to display.  

Hana’s Lego Room was a huge hit, offering a space to return to childhood, building and creating Lego and providing a space to relax, chat and create.  Our Craft and Chill area was also an amazing creative space, to chat, get to know each other, build friendships and try lots of different crafts, from glitter tattoos to beautiful rag wreaths, sprouts and Xmas pud pom poms, some inspirational snowmen, chocolate reindeers and mindful colouring.  

Thank you so much to our volunteers, Ros, Abbie and Nic our Pom Pom Queen!

The home-made soup and DIY wrap station at lunchtime went down a treat.  Thank you so much to Paul and Judy for all the hard work of preparing and the dreaded washing up after and the kind donation from Waitrose.  

We are so pleased we were able to provide this event to 21 young adult carers in the lead up to Christmas. Our mission was to ensure fun, new experiences, and a place where everyone has a sense of belonging and inclusion. We would like to thank all those who made the day possible, our resident photographer Fil, but particularly each and everyone of the YACs who made the day so wonderful. You never cease to amaze us! We leave you with some of the young people's feedback on the day and look forward to the next get together.

How would you describe today's event?  

“Fun time with friends and new experiences”,

“Where you can do different activities and meet other people in a similar situation.”

“A time and place to feel free and able to enjoy freedom.”

“Just somewhere that allows time out and a chance to talk,

“Amazing and thoughtful”  

“Good to get a break, talk to new people that are as worried as you”

“I really enjoyed today and the freedom I got”

Lauren & Sam – GYC's YAC Team.