Creative care packages delivered to young carers

Lovely news here!

These bundles of joy are part of a project called This Head, These Hands, which is a collaboration between artist Sheila Ghelani and a local group of young carers.

Sheila and the young carers began working together in early 2020 with the aim of making a collaborative artwork to share publicly in summer 2020. Plans changed due to the pandemic and lockdown restrictions and the decision was taken to create an artwork that would take the form of a care package - something that might care for the young carers themselves!

Package contents

For the head:

• A pulse point roller ball to aid sleeping and dreaming
• A notebook for thoughts, drawing up plans and special schemes
• A pencil to write stories, or just doodle and sketch with
• A water bottle to provide brain fuel and aid with clear thinking
• A hot chocolate drink to mix up in a cup - a bit of a treat when sipped really slowly....

For the hands:

• A precious stone for holding / healing
• Gloves for warmth (and texting friends / googling)
• Aloe Vera hand-cream to soothe and protect
• Some crayons and pictures to colour-in (and help with calming / relaxing).
• An It’s Cool to Be Kind tote bag created by St Helens artist, Kate Hodgson in collaboration with young people leaving care.

Heart of Glass Producer Rhyannon Parry says:
“It’s been an honour to collaborate with these amazing young people and the team at St Helens Carers Centre who support them. We could never have imagined that the project artist Sheila Ghelani set out to develop with them would end up here, or that we would be distributing these ‘care’ packages during another national lockdown. But we hope the contents can provide a reminder of how much carers are appreciated and valued while hopefully offering them a moment or two for creativity and self care at this difficult time.”

St Helens Carers Centre Manager Lorraine Pennington says:

"It's been an absolute pleasure working with the Heart of Glass on this project and we look forward to working with them again in the future. We sincerely hope our Young Carers enjoy their care packages."