We've been working with young carers from across Kirklees on this fantastic creative project...

During lockdown the award-winning theatre company LUNG ran an online national project called Young Carers Creative Makers in which they ran weekly creative workshops for young carers across the UK.

In the 2022 February half-term we partnered with LUNG and Barnardo's Kirklees Young Carers on Kirklees Young Carers Creative Makers, a scheme of in-person workshops for young carers living in Kirklees. This was the first in-person, local version of the Young Carers Creative Makers project and was a legacy project after working together on LUNG's show Who Cares, made with and about young carers, which toured to us in 2021.

The group came together during the half term to pay us a visit (some for the very first time), have a tour, meet the staff and be part of a series of workshops. They explored the theme of 'isolation' as 'taking action on isolation' is the theme for Young Carers Action Day in March 2022. Young Carers Action Day is an annual event raising public awareness of young carers and young adult carers, the pressures and challenges they face, and the incredible contribution they make by caring for their family members and friends.

Together the young carers we have been working with created the poem you hear in this short film. They responded to the Young Carers Action Day theme of 'isolation' and what that might mean for them...