Morning to our lovely community,
We hope this finds you all warm and safe.
This weeks nomination truly broke all of our admins hearts, when young people have awful circumstances thrown at them and the system makes it even harder.
"O" and his brother's have had such a tough time and 'O's" brother is obviously working so hard to try and create stability for his younger brother's, but with such lack of support or understanding around him.
What they do have is a wonderful Teacher in Michelle, our community member to guide them, and for this family to know 500 people really want their new family unit to flourish, to find a safe and secure home, and to have a really lovely Christmas, because my gosh, they deserve it.
Here is Michelle's nomination in full.
Love
The Admin the team.
Hello all
I write to you today because I am frankly heartbroken for a young boy in my school and his brothers.
Due to him being under 16 I’ll just use the first initial of his name, O.
O, a new Y7 pupil, joined our high school in 2020. His mother, who had struggled with a dreadful battle with cancer, passed away during lockdown with none of her family around her due to the protocols at the time.
Her own mother quickly took care of O and his two younger siblings. They all lived in a privately rented house in Cardiff alongside O’s three older brothers Cameron, Lewis and Tyler (who has quite significant learning needs and social anxiety), and their two dogs.
During this time, O experienced even more trauma from a police raid on his grandmother’s house. Later this was confirmed to be completely in error as they had confused the house numbers, but from then on O found it hard to sleep in that house. His behaviour in school deteriorated rapidly.
Sadly not one year after her daughter’s death, O’s grandmother was diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer. She was an incredibly determined lady and she battled on as long as she could to make certain that O and the other siblings were cared for. She died in December 2022. At this point, O’s father and uncle let him down and refused to take him into their care; his younger siblings were taken in by their biological father.
At the age of 24, O’s older brother Lewis stepped up. He was already taking on the responsibility of being the carer for his adult brother Tyler (since the time his grandmother was diagnosed) and he then wanted to make sure that O was not subjected to having to go into care. He told me, “Miss, he’s already had enough to deal with. He needs to stay with us.”
So with support of Children’s Services and us as a school, Lewis finally became O’s legal guardian in the July of this year. It was a huge relief and it looked like things were starting to turn around.
Then came the dreadful news that their private landlord was selling the house they had all shared with their grandmother for many years. Eventually a court ordered eviction was issued (though it was a no fault eviction and they had been great tenants) and on the 29th of October the three brothers left their nan’s house for the last time.
The local authority housing team have placed them in emergency housing which consists of one room in a hotel that the council are renting. Their dogs are staying with friends until they can get a house. They now have to drive over 10 miles to get O to school in the mornings as the council have said they cannot provide transport as there is no money on their budget.
They’ve lived in this current accommodation for two weeks. They are slowly adjusting and desperately searching for better accommodation but the private rental market doesn’t look too kindly on three young brothers, of whom only one has a job but is also receiving universal credit while working part time in order to give his brothers the best emotional support he can. Also let’s not forget that he is grieving too for the loss of his mother and grandmother.
When I asked for permission to submit the family’s story, Lewis said “Miss, that would be great. The money might help pay for Xmas.” Lewis is under no illusions that they will find or be given a better house situation before Xmas, so has said he wants to make sure that he can take his brothers out for food on Xmas Day and that he could buys presents for his brother who is now in Y10 and trying to study hard.
Any help you can give would be most appreciated by the family. They really are trying to make the most out of a very tragic situation.
Thanks for continuing to do good in this scary world.
Michelle
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