TACT South West hosted their annual Children and Young People’s Celebration Awards in October, providing a chance for foster carers to express their pride in what their children and young people have achieved!

Taking place at Weston-Super-Mare Pier, the event started with one young person reading out each nomination – with every award winner received a certificate and goody bag filled with treats. Many of the nominations mentioned young people’s ‘growth in confidence’, ‘positive steps taken’, and the ‘wonderful qualities they bring into the world’. Here are just a few examples of what our foster carers wrote about our young people:

“Well done for settling in so well to your new school and home, we love how curious you are.”

“We are so proud of your determination and the huge progress you’ve made over the last year, we want you to know that your achievements deserve to be recognised.”

“You deserve to be recognised as you are inspiring, you’ve become a published author as part of the Mission Chaos Young Writers challenge and we couldn’t be prouder.”

“Congratulations on your progress you’ve made with learning English, we’re so proud of everything you’ve achieved including getting into college and hoping to soon start an apprenticeship.”

There were also a number of awards given to foster carers from children. Many expressed gratitude and how happy they were to be living with them, as well as how much their carers made them laugh and smile. It was heart-warming to see a room full of love and appreciation despite the challenges that many of the children and young people have faced in the past.

TACT foster carers, Wendy and Amanda, shared their thoughts on why events such as this are important. Wendy said: “It’s lovely to be able to celebrate both the children and carers’ achievements. To me it’s the highlight of the year. We get to meet carers we may not have seen all year and we have such different backgrounds and lifestyles that it’s nice to just catch up.”

Amanda expressed how it’s a chance to celebrate “the simplest things, like just getting up every day and going to school. It could be something bigger, but sometimes even those little things need celebrating. Just to see them getting an achievement – it makes me so proud.”

The awards were followed by a buffet lunch which allowed children to catch up with friends as well as letting foster carers spend time with their support networks. Everyone then headed into the arcade for some fun and games before heading home.

It’s extremely important to everyone involved that events like these take place; it provides foster carers and young people with a chance to acknowledge and celebrate even the smallest of achievements. Sometimes it is the small achievements and wins that make the most difference.

A big thank you to our young people, foster carers and staff for their time and commitment. The day was a huge success and many were expressing how much they were already looking forward to doing it again next year!