Hull volunteers provide 'innovative' service for care leavers

“Innovative” young staff are to thank for Hull City Council’s initiative to feed hundreds of care leavers in the community.
Staff at Hull Council came up with the ideaStaff at Hull Council came up with the idea
Staff at Hull Council came up with the idea

The council’s walk-by food hub provides a week’s worth of food at a time to young people in Hull who need support after leaving the care system.

While most young people in the city have relatives who are able to look after them if they’re forced to self-isolate, some care-leavers have no family to turn to in times of need.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The walk-by service has been set up by Hull City Council’s Room 42 team, a care leavers’ hub based at The Guildhall, and the 16-25 Team at Kenworthy House.

Items can be collected at the window to ensure social distancing advice is followed.

Delivery can also be arranged for those who are isolated or unable to travel.

Mark Jones, the council’s director of regeneration and lead officer for care leavers said the idea came from the “innovative” young staff who have all experienced care.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He said: “Lots of care leavers thrive without us because they’ve had a lot of support from foster parents and they go off to uni.”

He added that the council’s three care workers all have personal experience of leaving the care system which meant they thought “outside the box” for ways to support young care-leavers.

He said: “It’s about making sure they’re well provided for in their diet and have everything they need in isolation. We want nobody to go without.”

One of the staff approached Yorkshire-based supermarket Morrisons, which sent a truck-load of essentials.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Jones said: “We’ve had an enormous amount of support from local organisations and businesses.”

Currently about 14 or 15 young people use the service every day but this is steadily increasing. However, Mr Jones said the council’s efforts were stepping up too.

The programme is part of a range of initiatives across Hull which are aiming to keep people together and ensure that they are safe during lockdown.

A new phone line staffed by volunteers, the Hull Helpline, has had 8,000 contacts in its first two weeks, helping residents access food, medical care and other supplies.

“It’s working really well,” Mr Jones added.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Join our new coronavirus Facebook group for the latest confirmed news and advice as soon as we get it www.facebook.com/groups/yorkshirecoronavirus

-------------------------------------------

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor