About Kinship Carers Liverpool
About Kinship Carers Liverpool
Established as a registered charity in 1996 known as PADA (Parents Against Drug Abuse) we naturally developed into a Kinship Project after identifying that lots of the families that we worked with were taking on full time care of their Grandchildren.
Kinship for our project means anybody who is raising somebody else’s child full time and we are increasingly seeing younger Kin Carers e.g., siblings, aunts/uncles taking on this role for a variety of reasons e.g., bereavement, chaotic lifestyles, substance misuse, imprisonment. We support everyone who lives in the Kinship house. Kinship Carers are important members of our community: providing a safe home for many children and young people who may otherwise be in Local Authority Care.
Whatever your age and circumstances, you are welcome to get in touch with us for a chat or come along and join us.
We’re here to help!
No matter what stage of you Kinship journey you are on we are here to support, maybe you are trying to navigate and find your way through the maze of regulations and issues around different orders, you may feel you are out on your own with some challenging behaviour or feel quite isolated – we are here, and you will gain support from others with similar life experiences.
From the beginning we have taken part in numerous campaigns, lobbies, and research to bring about change to support Kinship Families. Our families have been key to this, empowered to have their voices heard and using their lived experience to bring about the change needed to meet their needs – to keep young people out of Local Authority Care with better outcomes.
Timeline of some of our key events:
2015 – 1st ever young people’s conference in Liverpool
2016 – Baring Foundation funded us to use a Human Rights Based Approach to look at Kinship Care
2016 – National Kinship Carers Week was established by our project
2017 – working with Bluecoat we produced ‘In the palm of my hand’
2018 – we facilitated the voice of Kinship Carers across the North West for the Cross-party parliamentary task force (PTF)
2019 – our kinship kids called for a meeting at Westminster, to get their voices heard for the final PTF report
2020/21 – we are currently taking part in Liverpool’s Biennial Festival, under the theme of Kinship, working with Israeli artist Yale Davids to create a performance which uses the Feldenkrais Method to examine themes of community, locality, and rootedness!
2021 – working with Coram BAAF delivering a presentation around our pioneering work with Kin Kids to a National audience of professionals working in Special Guardianship Teams and being included in their resource pack compiled by Mark Doel ‘Using Objects in Social Work’
We are an active member of the of the Kinship Care Alliance:
‘The Kinship Care Alliance is a group of organisations which subscribe to a set of shared aims and beliefs on the issue of family and friends care. We meet regularly to develop a joint policy agenda and agree strategies to promote our aims.’
Small project with a huge impact!
How we can help
Support for Carers
We can guide you through the maze of services out there – whether you are a new kinship carer or been looking after a kin child for years.
Support for Kids
Are you living with friends or family members full time? Would you like to meet other young people with similar life experiences?
Support for Families
Our support workers run a series of fun activities in the evenings and in school holidays, for the whole family to get involved with.