By the Bridge Education Manager, Caroline Hallett, has recently spoken about the importance of additional support for Care Leavers around Christmas on BBC Radio Kent.
Caroline, who is part of the organising committee for the Folkestone ‘Christmas Dinner’ project, volunteers in her spare time to ensure care leavers have the opportunity to enjoy the festive season once they have left care.
The fantastic annual initiative, which is founded by poet Lemn Sissay OBE, helps communities, nationwide, to provide an amazing Christmas Day for care leavers aged between 18 and 25 years.
Talking on the Pat Marsh show yesterday [02/11/2021], Caroline says: “We have 80,000 children in care and every year 20,000 children leave care – as a result, not all of those can go back to their families so they can find themselves living alone, feeling lonely and isolated.”
The lunch will be available on Christmas Day, locally for approx. 40 care leavers.
“They will find a magical venue, beautifully decorated, a Christmas dinner cooked by a Chef, lots of presents, fun games and activities, a disco and entertainment, before being escorted back home again with a Christmas food parcel to help them out throughout the rest of the Christmas break.”
You can listen to the full interview at the following link, between 1hr 46mins and 1hr 53mins, to find out more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09yfn1v
To find out more about the amazing work The Christmas Dinners project does and/or to get involved, check out: http://thechristmasdinners.org.uk/
Why not follow @TheXmasDinnerFolkestone on Facebook whilst you're at it!
