Blog | Middlesbrough Voluntary Development Agency

Kinship carers: why support matters

14 December 2016 - 11:49am

Every child taken into the care of a family member, when their own parent is no longer able to care, saves the public purse upwards of £35,000 per year. The figure applies to a staggering 200,000 children and young people currently subject to kinship care arrangements in England. That is three times the number of children and young people (70,000) in local authority care. This startling statistic got my attention at the ‘Relative Experience Project’ conference I attended on 29 November 2016.

Grassroots support makes a real difference: Hope4Summer

5 December 2016 - 5:45pm

A guest blog by Heather Black, Development Officer, Together Middlesbrough & Cleveland

For the past three years I’ve been involved in developing Hope4Summer – a project that brings together churches and community groups in different locations across Middlesbrough and Redcar & Cleveland. Hope4Summer offers fun activities and healthy food for children during the summer holidays, because we know that for many local families the summer break is a struggle with children at home 24/7 and no free school meals.

Schools out for summer – A grass-roots response to families under pressure

21 July 2016 - 11:43am

Whilst many of us eagerly await our summer break many of the families across Middlesbrough will be counting the days until their children return to school. The number of Middlesbrough families living in poverty is a statistic most of us are far too familiar with and one that increases during the school summer break. Families struggling to manage throughout the year can hit a real crisis point during the six weeks summer break. Middlesbrough has one of the highest statistics of children on free school meals, this means that for many families, food poverty is a major issue throughout August.