An evening created to celebrate YOU!
This year marks our sixth year of celebrating you. We held our annual celebration of success in Care Leavers week, a chance to shout about our care experienced young adults and your achievements from the year. This year, like always we were very proud!
On the 25th of October we held a wonderful fun filled ceremony at The Old Palace, Civic Centre. This was to be our last in this beautiful venue prior to the move which takes place later this year. Of course, we chose to make the most of it and decorate it beautifully with the help from all at the Active Involvement Team. The chosen theme for this year was a ‘Masquerade Ball’ beautiful ball masks were gifted to each guest upon arrival, which was a fun aspect to the evening. We had two fantastic young hosts to lead the night and it was full of laughter, joy and pride!
Our wonderful CFCL (Change for Care Leavers) members launched the evening with a spectacular musical extravaganza – Members had been rehearsing over the course of a three-day workshop with the team from Create Art. The performance was spell bounding. His Worshipful the Mayor Cllr Dr David Jefferys and staff from the entire team were captivated with the performance. We are always exceptionally proud of our young people, and this was no exception.
YPA’s and social workers were there to present their young people their awards and talk about them in a touching and caring way. It was also lovely to see young people recognise their workers for an award.
Congratulations to all young people that received a nomination, you thoroughly deserved it.
For many young people leaving care can be a difficult and lonely time so it’s especially important to acknowledge your amazing talent, courage and determination!
How you can get involved?
You have to be 17+ to be entered in, and nominations are made by your social workers and YPA’s, and then we send out flyers and letters (designed and created by a care leaver) to invite you to the event. You also have a huge part to play in making your very own nominations! You can choose to nominate staff members to receive their very own special certificate on the night, this year we received more nominations than ever, needless to say lots of hugs and tears were had all round. Due to the success of also celebrating staff this will remain a special part of the evening moving forward.
Keep scrolling for details on some of our previous Celebrations!
On the 27th of October 2023 we held a wonderful fun filled ceremony at The Old Palace, Civic Centre. The venue is stunning in its own right, however, of course we chose to decorate it beautifully with the help from all at the Active Involvement Team. We had two fantastic young hosts to lead the night and it was full of laughter, joy and pride!
Our wonderful CFCL (Change for Care Leavers) members launched the evening with a spectacular musical extravaganza – Members had been rehearsing over the course of a three day workshop with the team from Create Art. His Worshipful the Mayor Cllr Mike Botting and staff from the entire team were entranced with the performance, everyone thoroughly enjoyed joining in with the last song, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house!
YPA’s and social workers were there to present their young people their awards and talk about them in a really touching and caring way. It was also lovely to see young people recognise their workers for an award.
Congratulations to all young people that were nominated, you deserve it!.
On the 30th October 2020, we held the Celebration of Success Event online via Webex, we had games, competitions and an award ceremony that was all hosted online. There was lots of fun, laughs and moments to remember. Young people were put forward for an award for a number of categories, such as
- Succeeding in education
- Work in the community
- Participation
- Showing resilience
- Being a fantastic parent
- Showing positive integration into society
- Demonstrating independent living skills
Although we were unable to meet in person we still made the event just as special, YPA’s and social workers were able to say some kind words about young people alongside their nomination and their young people were able to nominate their workers and make their comments. We will send certificates to young people’s houses alongside Just Eat takeaway vouchers so they can have their own mini celebration at home.
On the 22nd October 2019, we held the Celebration of Success Event in the Mayor’s Palace at the Civic Centre. There was lots of delicious food to eat, we provided a South African inspired BBQ meal, and tons of entertainment such as a DJ, fun and magic!
The event was hosted by three of our care leavers and co-organised from the Care leavers group; CfCl (Change for Care Leavers). They did an amazing job of welcoming and entertaining our guests! We asked YPA’s and Social Workers to introduce their young person and showcase their achievements and it was genuinely moving to see how strong the relationships were between young people and their workers and truly inspiring to hear their stories.
