Welsh university offers Christmas dinner for young people in care

Ella Groves

A Welsh university is running a Christmas Day event offering food, gifts, activities, and company for young people who are care-experienced.

Care-experienced young people are those who have lived in foster care, kinship care, or residential care homes whilst growing up.

They are twice as likely to report feeling lonely most or all of the time compared to young people in the general population, largely due to factors such as social isolation and a lack of family support once they leave care.

The event, now in its fourth year, is run by Cardiff University, with researcher Dr Lorna Stabler playing an instrumental role in its creation.

Dr Stabler and her two younger brothers were all raised in care in the north east of England, but were separated when they entered the care system.

Dr Stabler said: “Even though my last foster carer was wonderful, you’re still separated from the family you love. You feel like you can’t really celebrate properly. You’re there with other people’s family.

“It stops you from fully enjoying it when you’re wondering what the rest of your family is doing on Christmas day.

“I left care when I was 16 and was living on my own in a flat. Christmases were whatever I could make of them then. I had friends but they’d have plans with their own families. My brothers were still in foster care. It felt quite isolating.”

At 22 Lorna became a kinship carer for her youngest brother.

She said: “I had no idea how hard it was going to be. We needed so much more support than we got. We fell between the gaps.”

Once her brother moved out, she returned to education, gained a Masters degree and began a career in social work research first in London and then in Cardiff.

Her brother came to live with her in Cardiff but unfortunately tragically passed away at just 26 in 2020.

She said: “His experience of being in the care system affected the rest of his life. He felt quite abandoned by the systems and didn’t get the support he needed.

“Often people say that men need to ask for help when they need it, but despite asking, there wasn’t the support on offer.”

It was her brother’s experiences that led Lorna to pursue her PhD on sibling kinship care when she noticed a lack of representation in research.

From both her own personal experiences and her research, Lorna recognised how important the Cardiff-based event is this Christmas.

She said: “I would have benefitted so much from having an event like this. We have young people who have been coming here since the start, who now want to help with the organising, passing that lovely experience on to young people who are more recently coming out of care. Some come along with their siblings, giving them the opportunity to make new positive Christmas memories together.”

To get involved you can donate to Cardiff University’s Christmas Dinner event here or buy a gift for a young person here.