There have been big changes at Harmeny over the summer with the opening of a newly renovated cottage for our older young people.
This is a significant step towards our aim to extend our support for young people and enable them to stay beyond age 14.
The new living and dining room for older young people in Caroline Cottage
Five young people have now moved into the cottage and will be able to remain up to age 18, enabling them to maintain the positive relationships they have built up at Harmeny and avoid yet one more transition in their early teenage years.
A step towards independent living
Caroline Cottage is a space for young people to build on their independence with support given to help them develop vital life skills as Stacey Lawrence, Service Manager for our continuing care service explains:
“I am proud that the children have high-quality living spaces with our eldest children now being able to have their own en-suite bathrooms and new social and living spaces to enable them to invite friends over. The cottage spaces have also been designed to support the development of key life skills with our adults helping prepare our young people for independent living in the future through cooking, house-keeping and budgeting activities. The young people have been involved throughout the process of creating their new home with each bedroom being personalised and with their continuing input into further developing the garden space around the cottage”
A home to be proud of
A new sense of independence has been instilled in the young people who now make Caroline Cottage their home.
“It makes us feel older and more grown up.”
“I like how the cottage looks and it’s modern. I would be happy to bring my friends to visit.”
“I like my shower, there is loads of space, and the freedom of my own bathroom.”Our young people’s reflections on their new home
Enabling young people to live and learn at Harmeny
Creating the right living spaces for young people in care beyond 14 is only half the challenge, we must also provide appropriate learning spaces so that they can continue their secondary education at Harmeny and build on all that they have achieved so far.
Thanks to the incredible support of the community, donors and funders we have now reached £2.5 million and are 80% of the way to the £3.1m we need to build a new Learning Hub. Building work is due to start this autumn and we need everyone’s support to help close the gap to the target. Find out more about ways to support the Appeal here.
