Young carers are children and young people providing care to a family member or a friend who has a disability, suffer from chronic illness, mental health problem or other condition connected with a need for long-term care.
Often, young carers are invisible: they remain unidentified, their needs for support are not met.
IDENTIFY, SUPPORT, AND LISTEN TO YOUNG CARERS
This third edition will reflect on the concrete actions required to enable young carers to reach their full potential, without being negatively impacted by their caring responsibilities. The theme for this edition is “IDENTIFY, SUPPORT, AND LISTEN TO YOUNG CARERS”. These were the main recommendations identified by young carers themselves during the previous conference (held in May 2017 in Malmö, Sweden).
Participants are expected to learn about strategies implemented in different countries (what worked, what did not work, what can be replicated) to drive changes in mindsets, policies and practices and move forward in our vision: one where young carers can fully enjoy the human rights they are entitled to.
Researchers, practitioners, policymakers and young carers from 20 countries – including Canada, United States of America, Iceland, India and Japan – will share they experiences around the theme: Identify, support and listen to young carers.
Among the 81 abstracts selected (for individual presentations and Symposia), you will find topics like:
Identify
- Reaching out to young carers and, in particular, hidden/forgotten groups
- Breaking down barriers and empowering professionals so that they can identify young carers
Support
- Towards young carers’ friendly educational systems
- Addressing the specific challenges faced by young carers in transition to adulthood
- Supporting young carers’ mental health
- Whole family, multi-stakeholder approaches to support young carers
Listen to
- The voice of young carers in policies, practices and research
The conference will be opened by young carers or former young carers members of the Eurocarers Young Carers Working Group. We will also have the pleasure to count on the active participation of, among others, Ms Helena Dalli (EC Commissioner for Equality), Ms. Valeria Setti (European Commission Coordinator for the Rights of the Child) and colleagues from UNICEF Innocenti Research Institute.
Keynote speeches will be delivered by, among others, Prof Saul Becker, University of Sussex, UK.
This Conference is open to all researchers, civil society organisations, practitioners, decision makers, service providers and policy makers – from everywhere in the world- interested to learn about and hear from young carers themselves.
Naturally, young carers are warmly invited to participate in the conference (free of charge).
By means of exchanging experiences and learning from each other, participants can expect to leave the conference with practical ideas on how to identify, support and engage with young carers back at home.
We all have a role to play to enable young carers to pursue their goals in life and reach their full potential!
Registrations are now open (till 27 April 2021). You can register here.
Feel free to share this invitation among your networks
We invite you to have a look at the Conference website, which will constantly be updated with information about the programme, the registration fees, as well as the answer to questions you may have.
