A group of volunteers who are passionate about ensuring Teesside care leavers experience the Christmas Day they deserve are calling for support from local businesses and individuals.

Jill Ambrazaitis, steering group lead for the Care Leavers' Christmas Dinner, said she wants to make sure all the young people attending the event have a day to remember.

She said: "The poet Lemm Sissay started the Christmas Dinner Project, which encourages communities to mobilise a group to plan a Christmas dinner for care leavers, aged 16 to 25.

Read more: Rishi Sunak helps Northallerton care home residents decorate Christmas tree

"Care leavers generally have no family they can turn to, and for them, Christmas Day can leave them with negative feelings of isolation and loneliness – so we want to give them a day to remember, and show them what Christmas can be about.

"We put on transport for them, to pick them up and bring them to the venue, and we provide presents, and all the trimmings that goes with Christmas Day. We are always looking for donations to help fund the event; gifts; and this year we could particularly do with some extra Christmas decorations."

Jill added: "The main thing we want is to show these young people is what a good Christmas can look like, and that there are people who care about them and believe in them.

"Our volunteers come from all walks of life, and many of them return every year. This is our third year of hosting our Christmas dinner, and I can honestly say it gets bigger and better each year."

Poet Lemm Sissay, who grew up in care, said Christmas divides the world into two sorts of people.

One group gathers around the domestic hearth: all jocularity and teasing, memories and traditions. The other group is, as in the Victorian cliche, outside the window looking in.

Read next:

Everything we take for granted about a family Christmas is a luxury. He said: “They are a luxury, and you do take them for granted. But rightly so – we should all be able to.

"Christmas, as for any child in care, can be the hardest time: when the festive lights serve only to expose what is missing, and will never be there. It can feel like an incredibly risky time, that makes these young people want to fold themselves into themselves. All the memories are of Christmases that haven’t been good.”

If any individuals or organisations in our region would like to offer support, they can either email tcdmandt@gmail.com for more information, or donate here