Here’s how you can support a Christmas Day experience for 18-to-25 year old care leavers across Northants
Here is how you can support a wholesome Christmas Day experience for 18-to-25 year old care leavers across Northamptonshire this festive season.
Penny Dickens has fostered children since 2009 and wanted to do something new for care leavers by introducing ‘The Christmas Dinner’ initiative to the county.
“We’re following in the footsteps of 30 other dinners across the country, as this has been going for 10 years,” Penny told this newspaper. “We’re following the template for what will be like a large family gathering, not a formal event.
“We’re going for 30 guests this year and they will spend a large chunk of Christmas Day together in a comfortable and welcoming space doing similar things to a big family.”
Attendees can be put forward by themselves or others, but everyone needs to be pre-registered in order to secure their place. It will be a door-to-door service, led by a team of people experienced in the foster care world.
Everyone in attendance will go away with a Waitrose food hamper, handmade patchwork quilt, a goody bag crammed with small gifts, and the choice of one big present. The hope is that everyone will feel cared for and appreciated when they leave.
“I’ve fostered for 17 years and I can’t imagine what it would have been like for my three who are already 18 to not have any support when they became adults,” said Penny.
She explained that it is not typical for those who have been fostered to continue receiving support once they reach 18, and Penny is a rare case in that she left her career in law in 2010 to give everything to being a foster parent.
There have been four children who have stayed with Penny long-term and 136 others who have lived with her in emergencies or respite cases. Penny will go back to providing short-term help when her final long-term child soon hits 18.
There are a couple of spaces available for volunteers who want to assist on Christmas Day, but there are many more gaps on Christmas Eve – when they will be wrapping hundreds of presents and preparing food for the following day.
£1,400 has already been raised to fund the big presents which each of the attendees get to choose, and the hope is that this will only increase as the big day draws nearer.
“We just want to spread the word,” said Penny. “You don’t know who’s out there and who this may resonate with.”