About The Young Carers Initiative

The Young Carers Initiative (YCI) is a non-profit organization which has its roots in the Alzheimer Society of the Niagara Region (ASNR). The ASNR provides support services for persons with dementia and their families, and this support includes home visits by specialized family counsellors. During these home visits, the family counsellors encountered many children who were living with a relative with dementia who took on a caregiving role to help their grandparent or parent. In 2003, the ASNR tracked 74 children on its case load that were part of a caregiving family. Some of these children did not actually live with the relative with dementia, but their lives were nonetheless affected and many were young caregivers. The ASNR decided to take measures to support these youngest of caregivers from dementia care families.

At first, the focus of the ASNR was narrow. It was interested only in children growing up in dementia care families. A grant of $68,000 from the Fowler Foundation provided the funds for a pilot project, part of which was used to conduct an extensive literature review (See "Inside the Black Box of Young Carers") on children growing up in families dealing with dementia. This literature review failed to find any information about Canadian children, but it did make the ASNR aware of the growing young carers' movement which had started in Great Britain in the early 1990's and advocated support for children from families facing any type of disability or chronic condition. The ASNR decided to broaden its horizons and start a young carers' movement in Canada, the first of its kind in the country to recognize young carers as a specific population with very special needs. The current Young Carers Initiative is an outgrowth of this ASNR pilot project.

Besides the literature review, the initial grant from the Fowler Foundation was used to begin a network of community agencies to address the needs of young carers in the Niagara Region. This network became known as the Young Carers Initiative Niagara (YCIN) and it started its work by developing a philosophy statement and terms of reference to guide its mandate. The philosophy statement is available on this site.

The YCIN eventually obtained a two-year grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation to continue its work with young carers. During this period (2004-2006) some informational materials, including a brochure, a young carer's fact sheet and a parent's fact sheet were developed and distributed far and wide. A research project, called "Hear Me Now," and based on interviews with young carers themselves, was developed in conjunction with Heather Chalmers, a researcher and professor in the Child and Youth Studies department, Brock University, St. Catharines. The results of this study will be available in the near future. A limited number of programs for young carers were offered and for the most part were hugely successful. Young carers who participated in the programs met other young carers, and many formed informal networks of friendship and support among themselves via phones, emails and social outings. This opportunity to meet their peers proved to be a very important component of the program. Young carers tend to be very isolated. Most of the time even their closest friends have no idea what is going on. Other young carers can empathize, make them feel less alone and allow them to be part of a group of kids their own age who understands.

A full history of the YCIN is included in the literature review, Inside the Black Box of Young Carers (PDF) and is available on this web site, so no more will be said here. Suffice it to say that the original network, Young Carers Initiative Niagara (YCIN) was operational during the two-year Trillium grant, and its mandate ended when the grant ended in June of 2006. So from its beginnings as a special project of the Alzheimer Society of the Niagara Region, the YCIN has now morphed into an independent organization, the Young Carers Initiative (YCI) with its own board of directors which is dedicated to continue the work of its predecessors. A huge part of its mandate will be to build public awareness about the needs of young carers and providing support for them. This web site, Young Carers Canada, is part of that mission.

Philosophy

The YCIN is based on the philosophy that individual and family resilience is fostered through strong communities founded upon mutuality, partnership and collaboration.

Mission

To create an inclusive community where young carers and their families can build resilience through opportunities to share experien ces, benefit from mutual support, have fun and achieve optimal development through individualized guidance designed to strengthen the resources within their families and themselves.

Core Values

Honouring the needs and perspectives of young carers within the context of their families serves as the core value for the YCIN and the evolution of its programmes.

The YCIN offers an opportunity for young carers to be:

Valued for their contribution and perspective
Supported in their care-giving roles
Engaged in building on their own inner strengths and resilience
Assisted in their efforts to have a positive childhood and family life