Action for Children’s Bridgend Young Carers are to launch their storybook, ‘The Bear Who Struggled to Care’, at a special ceremony at Bridgend Carers Centre on May 31st at 12 noon.
The book, believed to be the first of its kind, tells the story of two bear cubs whose mother has an accident which results in the bears needing to look after her. Ellie takes to it like a duck to water but Ben does not. The story follows Ben on his journey to accepting his caring role and caring for his mother.
The young carers wrote the book with the help of local illustrator and author Mike Church.
Rhian Bennett, family support practitioner at Bridgend Young Carers, said: ‘Through our project work in Bridgend schools, we found that pupils in secondary schools were able to grasp the role of a young carer quickly, however, younger children in primary schools found it difficult to understand.
‘We thought about what we could do to support our awareness-raising sessions about young carers to primary school children and decided a storybook was a really good way of doing this. We’re thrilled with what Mike and the children have come up with and delighted it’s the first book of its kind. It will really help younger children understand being a young carer in a thoughtful and gentle way.’
To attend or for further media information please contact Alastair Love, media officer at Action for Children, on 02920 347068 / 07872 675688 / alastair.love@actionforchildren.org.uk
Out–of–hours enquiries should be directed to the duty press officer on 07802 806679/ media.team@actionforchildren.org.uk
How Action for Children works: from before they are born until they are into their twenties, we help disadvantaged children across the UK. We help them through fostering or adoption – and by intervening early to stop neglect and abuse. We make life better for disabled children. We influence policy and advocate for change. Our 7,000 staff and volunteers operate over 600 services, improving the lives of 390,000 children, teenagers, carers and carers every year. We succeed by doing what’s right, doing what’s needed, and doing what works for children.
For more information, visit actionforchildren.org.uk or follow us on Twitter @actnforchildren @cymru_AFC
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