Where did the idea come from?

 

Hels: Maureen, tell me a bit about, where did this idea come from for ‘keys’ to the door’ project?

 

Maureen: From the experience of listening to the older carers group and carers talking about their experience, but also other work that EDG does so we’ve worked with other families, families who’s sons and daughters are about to leave home, or they’re at the stage where they are thinking about the future and quite often my experience is that, parents can listen to professionals, but professionals haven’t walked in their steps so if there was an opportunity for the older carers, who’ve done it, binned it, tried it, got the t-shirt, had the pie, not liked the pie, changed that t-shirt if they have all that opportunity to share that with the younger carers, that they are able to tell their stories,  and obviously, things change, the law changes, different systems change, but actually, at the end of the day, these are mums, who’s sons and daughters are at the stage of leaving home, and what mums felt about that, ten, fifteen years ago. I had a sense that they would feel the same now, and so I wanted to bring that together so that people could have an opportunity to hear how others have done it, to learn from them and to pick out the juicy bits that work for them, so that’s why I thought that this might work.