Archives -

Foster carers and staff said farewell to Des Walsh, the outgoing Registered Manager of Young People at Heart today at a surprise lunchtime function held at the Thameside Coffee Shop. Chief Executive Gary Cox thanked Des for his contribution to the organisation and said that Des would always have a special place in the history …

Young People at Heart are delighted to announce the appointment of Lynda Pritchard as our Education advisor. Lynda is highly experienced in the education system. She retired as the Headmistress of a Junior School and is looking forward to working with our foster carers, advising and supporting them in Personal Education Plan (PEP) meetings, for …

Over 100 of us, comprising young people in care, foster families and staff spent a very enjoyable afternoon watching the pantomime Peter Pan at the Thameside Theatre in Grays. Thank you to the management, cast and crew at the theatre for putting on such a wonderful performance, thoroughly enjoyed by all of us at Young …

We held our Christmas coffee morning today, an informal event where foster carers and staff can get together and discuss anything of common interest. Carers have said they really enjoy the opportunity of meeting each other, staff and management and sharing thoughts and ideas. The coffee mornings have proved so successful, we plan to hold …

Young People at Heart have teamed up with The Social Care Training Hub to provide online training to supplement the foster carer training program already in place. Initially five courses have been made available for carers to complete. These courses are: Radicalisation and Extremism Psychoactive Substances Anti-bullying Autism Spectrum Disorder ADHD and Autism Advanced Level …

As part of our annual review process, we asked the 13 year old daughter of one of our foster carers how she felt about her family fostering. Her reply was one of the nicest we’d ever heard… ‘We don’t foster. We join children to our family’. What a wonderful response from such a young person. …

Young People at Heart recently approved another two foster carer households new to fostering, bringing the total number of foster care households to 12. Founder and Chief Executive Gary Cox said he was delighted to welcome the new foster carers into the Young People at Heart family. Both were single carers who brought skills and …

Congratulations to Letesha-Kirton Adams, one of our independent Fostering Panel members, who has been announced as a finalist for a 2016 YBA (Young Black Achievers) Award. Letesha is a care leaver and is now studying to be a social worker. Gary Cox, Founder of Young People at Heart, said Letesha provides the Young People at …

Today our young people and birth children enjoyed a day of activities at the Thriftwood Scout Camp, a wonderful facility set in woodland just outside Brentwood, Essex. After a morning enjoying the ‘Cresta Run’, a purpose built track and carts, and the pedal car olympics, (where it was great to see the older youngsters helping …