Brightside Secures National Lottery Grant for Young Carers. We are gearing up for a major impact, thanks to vital support from The National Lottery Community Fund
This crucial funding will enable us to launch a brand-new, targeted mentoring programme, dedicated to supporting 100 young carers across the country with personalised guidance and resources.
This new, targeted programme is designed to tackle the significant, often invisible, disadvantages that young carers face. The heart of the project is personalised support: we strategically match these resilient young people with dedicated mentors who offer one-to-one guidance, helping them successfully navigate the complex pressures of balancing caring responsibilities with their educational and career ambitions.
The Stark Reality for Young Carers
The need for this targeted intervention is critical and urgent. Young carers take on responsibilities far beyond those of their peers, but the weight of their duties often sideline their own educational and career futures. Stark research from UCL illustrates the scale of the challenge, highlighting that young carers are significantly more likely to face lower attainment and reduced access to higher education compared to non-caring peers, emphasising a pressing equity gap this programme aims to close.
- The Educational Gap is Severe: Young carers are 38% less likely to achieve a university degree than their non-caring peers.
- The Crisis Worsens with Responsibility: This disparity widens dramatically for those with the heaviest duties. Young people caring for 35 or more hours per week are a shocking 86% less likely to secure a degree.
These alarming statistics point to a clear, long-term path of disadvantage. Without targeted intervention, young carers frequently lack the specific support networks and career resources needed to successfully navigate key life transitions into further education or the world of work. That is precisely where Brightside steps in. We are committed to disrupting this cycle of disadvantage and giving these young people the future they’ve earned.
Our Solution: Targeted, Flexible Mentoring
The impact will be significant and life-changing. We are matching 100 young carers (14-18) with dedicated, trained mentors drawn from Brightside’s high-calibre network. Each mentor relationship is specifically designed to provide a trusted, non-judgmental ally who understands the young carer’s challenges. Our mentors are specially trained to deliver tailored information and practical advice that is often hard to find: guidance on higher education entry, specific career pathways, and accessing financial support. Ultimately, this support helps these young people not just survive but navigate complicated systems with confidence, ensuring their exceptional dedication to others doesn’t come at the cost of their own potential.
Accessibility is the cornerstone of this programme. We deliver the project entirely through Brightside’s secure, safeguarded online platform and mobile app, ensuring the support is as flexible as it is crucial. This format offers two major advantages:
- Unmatched Flexibility: Young carers can connect with their mentors whenever it suits them, fitting essential career conversations seamlessly around their unpredictable studies and demanding caring responsibilities.
- Zero Barriers: The online delivery completely removes geographical constraints, meaning a young carer in a remote village has the same access to high-quality mentoring as one in a major city.
The programme will support 100 young carers across two distinct cohorts, running in Spring 2026 and Autumn 2026.
The Power of The National Lottery Community Fund
A debt of gratitude is owed to The National Lottery Community Fund for making this vision a reality. This grant is more than just money; it’s the power to pivot and focus. This accessible, community-focused funding transforms non-profit organisations like Brightside, allowing us to pilot innovative programmes and target support precisely where the need is most critical. Ultimately, this funding is an investment in human potential, ensuring we can deliver high-impact interventions that guarantee every young person has the chance to fulfil their promise.
Why We Focus on Ages 14-18
We intervene precisely when it matters most: between the ages of 14 and 18. This is the crucial window when young carers begin making decisions—such as choosing Level 3 qualifications (A-Levels or BTECs), that can shape their entire future. Without dedicated guidance, they too often inadvertently rule themselves out of crucial pathways, simply because they lacked the right information at the right time.
The new Brightside mentoring programme closes this gap by giving young carers a dedicated, informed advocate. Our mentors help them understand their options, keep pathways open, and build confidence. By equipping these 100 young people with the tools to make informed decisions, we are ensuring that their extraordinary commitment to their families translates into an equally extraordinary opportunity for their own lives and careers.
Our project was made possible thanks to National Lottery players
The National Lottery Community Fund is dedicated to backing community-led projects across the UK that aim to strengthen local relationships and, crucially, help more people to reach their potential by supporting them at the earliest possible stage.
For Brightside, this partnership is a powerful statement of intent. The grant enables us to launch a highly focused intervention, mentoring young carers aged 14-18, to make certain their unique potential is not sidelined by their current responsibilities.
The National Lottery Community Fund therefore, is more than a financial contribution; it is the key that unlocks a shared mission to create genuine opportunity and prove that caring for others should never mean sacrificing your own future
