Our funding will support the testing of a model of support for care-experienced young people.

What we’re funding: Shared Lives is a model of support which involves matching someone who needs support with a carefully approved Shared Lives carer. Our funding will enable the testing of a new programme for young people who are leaving care and experiencing mental ill-health and/or a learning disability.

Why we’re funding: Significant gaps in community-based and family oriented options for care leavers have raised concerns over these young people ending up in unsuitable and dangerous accommodation. Shared Lives Plus’ programme will identify solutions to this complex challenge, providing evidence of how an alternative form of support could be brought to scale across England.

This grant will enable Articulate to further develop their Arts and Wellbeing Programme for care-experienced children and young people.

What we’re funding: Our funding will go towards the continued employment of a specialist Arts and Wellbeing Co-Ordinator, who has played a pivotal role in shaping and refining the arts and wellbeing strand of ‘The Articulate Approach.’

Why we’re funding: Articulate Cultural Trust was set up to ensure that children and young people with care-experience and caring responsibilities have a positive childhood and a brighter future. Through their creative work, they have developed a well-researched, evidence based programme that is dedicated to the complex needs of care-experienced children and young people in Scotland.

The Reader Organisation’s Reading Heroes project provides shared reading for enjoyment outside school settings to care-experienced children.

What we’re funding: The project is based on an understanding of how reading can be used to create healthier and stronger communities. It provides 1:1 shared reading for enjoyment to care-experienced children outside of school settings. The project is a targeted response to the lack of confidence and poorer than usual educational achievement that many children in care face.

Why we’re funding: The Reader Organisation is an impressive example of a charity that is effectively scaling-up its services through new income sources and partnerships. It has a very specific model with strong values and a clear vision that ‘everyone has a right to great literature.’ Our funding will enable the charity to consolidate and extend its reading heroes project and develop active relationships with local authorities for wider roll-out.