Help for young people

Our support is available to young people aged 8-25 living in Sheffield who are:

  • young carers AND/OR

  • young people affected by drug/alcohol issues in their family, now or in the past

“You take an interest in me and things that I like”
— SYC member

We aim to:

  • provide young people with a break from home

  • build their resilience and confidence to help them manage in their caring or family life

  • reduce the impacts that caring or family substance misuse is having on their life

  • improve their health and wellbeing - both physical and emotional

We do this by providing a range of support over one year, offering reunion events and other ways to stay involved after this time.

Please note: Apologies but, due to high demand, we currently have a waiting list of approximately six months (unless a condition is terminal).

We offer:

  • A home visit or phonecall to meet the young person and their family.

  • Four to six one-to-one sessions, for the young person to get to know a worker and receive individual support. These sessions are based on the needs and interests identified by the young person.

  • Access to our counselling service if the young person needs additional therapeutic support.

  • A minimum of one term of our evening groupwork programme, where young people can have fun and get a break, learn information and skills, and get peer support from other young people in similar situations. Each term’s programme is planned around the needs identified by the group members that term.

  • Access to school holiday activities for one year, including trips, a summer residential and fun family events.

  • Training and participation opportunities.

  • Advocacy, case working, signposting and referrals.

  • Opportunities to stay involved with the project after the core year of support has finished.

We currently provide groups for:

  • 8 to 12 year olds

  • 12 to 16 year olds

  • 16 to 25 year olds

Our groups are all face-to-face now, with occasional online groups as well. We provide transport for our 8-12 year old groups and pay public travel costs for our 12+ age groups. We can also provide bus/tram training for young people aged 12+ if they haven’t travelled independently before.

Help outside SYC

While young people are waiting for support from SYC, or if they decide they don't want to join, we also have lots of information about other organisations and websites that can help. To take a look, click here.

If our service isn’t right for you but you are aged up to 18, there is also the SYC Activity Fund that you can apply for instead.