Two charities that support young carers have joined forces to produce videos which will be premiered in Sandbanks on 8 February.

MYTIME Young Carers, which is Dorset-based, has teamed up with stormbreak, a national charity that supports children’s mental and physical health.

MYTIME’s CEO, Krista Sharp, said: “stormbreak produce incredible videos that support young people with their mental health and wellbeing. At MYTIME, we’re always looking for new ways we can support young carers and collaborating with the stormbreak team was a wonderful opportunity for us.

“What’s made this project really special is that it’s led by MYTIME young carers who’re aged 16 and above, up to their mid-twenties. They’ve come together and worked so hard; they’ve driven the design and development of these videos and deserve full credit. These young carers worked with the stormbreak team to create a series of ‘stormbreaks’ which are short videos designed to improve mental health through movement for younger young carers.”

MYTIME supports carers as young as five years old who may be carrying out anything from cooking to doing laundry to physically helping a parent get up and dressed every morning. The responsibility of caring for another person often means these young people miss out on hobbies, seeing friends and other social activities their peers may take for granted.

The video series, presented by MYTIME’s young adult carers, were produced to support wellbeing and reduce feelings of loneliness.

Martin Yelling, stormbreak’s founder, said: “In this project, we really wanted to understand the issues and challenges that young carers face and work with them to produce some stormbreak activities they’d feel proud of but also that would really help other young carers, especially when they might be struggling.

“Being able to get to know the young carers and to listen to them and hear their voices was a critical part of this project. Together, we then produced stormbreak videos designed to support resilience, relationships, hope and optimism, self-care, and self-worth and aim to support wellbeing and reduce feelings of loneliness in younger carers which is so important.

“We work with movement and encourage children to move too. Today’s children move less than ever before whilst mental health issues are sadly on the rise. This project is both timely and required. The young carers were totally amazing people and our team at stormbreak were dazzled by their commitment and humbled by their attitudes. We hope this project represents the start of many collaborative programmes in the future.”

Krista said: “At MYTIME, we know that no one understands what young carers need better than young carers themselves, so we work hard to place them at the centre of everything we do and to amplify their voices. We also recognise that young carers are incredibly capable young people and, with the right support, they can achieve amazing things.

“Watching the young carers working on this project and seeing how they’ve been empowered to channel their experiences into something positive for future generations of young carers is so amazing. It’s this, above all else, that we’ll be celebrating at the premiere.”

The stormbreaker video series will be premiering at Coast.Surf.Moto in Sandbanks on Wednesday 8 February at 6.30-8.30pm. A behind the scenes video of the project can be viewed on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=-i0_hNcLblY