Member News: Barnardo’s and IKEA UK relaunch LifeLabs, a hub for young people leaving the care system

Young people leaving the care system who need advice and tips about how to live independently can now access new resources online, created by Barnardo’s and IKEA UK. 

Leading UK children’s charity Barnardo’s in partnership with IKEA have expanded LifeLabs, an online hub, for young people in and leaving care, which launched in February 2020. The hub now offers care leavers more video content and an innovative Augmented Reality lens operating through Snapchat. The lens is designed to create a bigger and better immersive sensory experience to help support care-experienced young people’s mental health and wellbeing in the home. This allows the user to place objects in a virtual room, and then plays stimulating calming sounds linked to those objects. 

Young people who have been in the care system often struggle when they reach adulthood, are three times less likely to be in education, employment or training than other young people their age*, and nearly half (45%) of children in care have a mental health disorder. 

Created in collaboration with young people from Barnardo’s Care Journeys, the charity’s national programme which aims to create positive change and improvements for young people leaving the care system, LifeLabs allows care-experienced young people to connect, share experiences and learn together. 

With a new range of informative and helpful videos on topics such as making delicious meals with leftovers, simple ideas to boost health, fitness and wellbeing, along with ways to save money, LifeLabs has even more content than before. 

As part of the project, Barnardo’s and IKEA have been working with award-winning design studio Leap, to create the additional video content for the hub, as well as the new Augmented Reality lens.  

In addition, through Barnardo’s partnership with IKEA, the charity has been able to host a series of IKEA Live Lagom workshops at IKEA stores across the country where care-experienced young people have been able to attend and learn life at home skills in a practical setting. 

Natalie Dixon, National Programme Manager of Barnardo’s Care Journeys, said: “There are currently over 80,000 children in care in England. Every year over 10,000 of them leave the system, and are expected to live more or less independently.  

“Living on your own can be difficult without the support of friends and family nearby, and it can be even harder if you are struggling to make ends meet.  

“Barnardo’s, IKEA and Leap believe that care-experienced young people deserve the same opportunities in life as their peers, and that’s why we are making our LifeLabs online hub bigger and better than ever. 

“With content made by young people with lived experience of care, LifeLabs is a great way for care-experienced young people to learn new skills and build confidence.”   

Hiliary Jenkins, Sustainability Business Partner at IKEA, said: “At IKEA we are united with Barnardo’s in our belief that every young person deserves a place to call home and a healthy start in life and IKEA are incredibly proud to be working with Barnardo’s on this fantastic initiative.  

“Care experienced young people are some of the most disadvantaged in society and we are grateful that IKEA co-workers’ have been able to provide their unique expertise to support young people with independent living skills. Through hosting workshops in our stores, to the new content on the LifeLabs site, we are glad to have been able to support thousands of young people who need it most.” 

To find out more visit https://lifelabs.org.uk 

Source:
www.barnardos.org.uk

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