Shrewsbury Town in the Community have teamed up with Children in Need for a new project for Shropshire children in care.
Shrewsbury Town in the Community have been chosen by BBC Children in Need to launch a first-of-its-kind project targeting local children in care to help provide them with important support and opportunities which they might not otherwise get, aimed at improving life chances.
The ‘Future Generations’ project is partnered with Children in Need and Smash Life UK and will launch on Tuesday 24th September. It will consist of weekly drop-in sessions in two groups separated by age, where attendees will be able to learn a variety of life skills improving their communication, confidence, and working as part of a team. The groups will meet at the Mercedes-Benz Football Hub at Montgomery Waters Meadow and will be fun, informal sessions where attendees are welcome to attend as often as they like.
As supplements to these drop-in sessions there will be three weekend residentials held throughout the year where participants will get the opportunity to learn some independent living skills along with taking part in a variety of outdoor activities. The two areas will then be brought together for a final phase next summer where participants will get the chance to put what they have learned into practice by helping out with a Shrewsbury Town in the Community fundraiser, with the aim of showing them the impact they can have in their local area and help them feel more integrated with the community.
In 2018 the Department of Health established that there were 53,420 children and young people in the care system. This is a huge number of children who often do not get the same opportunities as others might due to lack of funding for local care providers. It is hoped that this first-of-its-kind project will help children in care throughout Shropshire gain more opportunities and help local authorities provide a service which they are not currently in a position to do so.
Project leader Sophie Challinor commented "We are excited to be launching this new programme where we will be learning and developing life-skills in a fun environment, with weekend residential visits away, applying these skills to projects within the local community."
Jamie Edwards, CEO of Shrewsbury Town in the Community, hopes the project will offer a much- needed service to the local area. “The Future Generations project has been around two years in the making, working with one of our partners, The Name of the Game, who helped us secure the funding from Children in Need. It should be a really exciting and impactful project which we can deliver for Shropshire and hope we can help inspire children in care, give them better life chances and help them integrate into the community in Shropshire.”
Care providers can sign up to receive more information and register children in their care to take part now at - https://www.shrewsburytowninthecommunity.com/activities/future-generations/
For more information about the Future Generations project please contact - sophie.challinor@shrewsburytowninthecommunity.com