Hi my name is Mary Copsey and I am your Vice President for Business and Law.  In my personal experience I grew up in the role of a young carer, then an adult young carer. It was very challenging at times to manage my responsibilities as a carer and a student throughout education. When I progressed to higher education I continued to experience these challenges with the struggles around balancing my life and education with the added pressures of working.

Throughout my studies I have had the privilege to meet a diverse range of students who identified themselves as a parent and/or a carer. They highlighted that these issues impact a wider range of students and this is where the carers campaign started.

Carers Trust (2015) define as a carer as: “A carer is anyone who cares, unpaid, for a friend or family member who due to illness, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction cannot cope without their support”. This campaign aims to achieve awareness around the responsibilities that student parents and carers have and how our Students' Union and Anglia Ruskin University can support them throughout their studies.

CAMPAIGN AIMS:

• To achieve carers awareness throughout all faculties in the university.
• To provide academic and peer support for young and adult carers.

CAMPAIGN UPDATES:

Oct 2018 - ongoing

I have worked with the university to update the Parents and Carers pages including more detail on support, making information clearer

The Carers Quiz was created to help overcome the stigma on the questions of “Am I Carer? What is a Carer?”. The quiz will outline factors on if you are likely to be a carer, what find of carer are you? And what support you can get for parent and/or carer respobilities.

Nov 2018

Carers’ Network platform was created (sign up HERE!)

We successful hosted Carers' Rights Day in both Cambridge and Chelmsford on the 29^th and 30^th November with afternoon tea parties and community outreach, supporting the charities of Mind and Vibrance with donations. We also had a variety of other charities, such as Action for Family Carers, come in to speak to students about how can the charities can help student carers.

Some pictures from our Carers Awareness Afternoon Tea Parties!

Dec 2018

Christmas-themed meet up took place in collaboration with the Arts and Crafts Society on the 13^th December.

13^th December – Our first Become a Dementia Friend training intervention took place in Cambridge campus on the 13^th December.

To find out more about Becoming A Dementia Friend and come to our Chelmsford event, read this article!

Campaign Wins

JAN 2019 – Parents in Education society started!

DEC 2018 – Peterborough newsletter went out to all students spreading the awareness of what support they can get with any parent and/or carer responsibilities.

What's Coming Up…???

Refreshers GIAG: Afternoon Tea

All students are welcome to attend make new friends and have some tea and cakes! At this event there will be informative materials on support with parent and/or carer responsibilities and mental health.

Check out the event in Cambridge and in Chelmsford.

Become A Dementia Friend training in Chelmsford - book your ticket here for FREE!