This page is aimed at children and young people born with a cleft. We also have a page about CLAPA Companions aimed at parents, carers and family members.
What is CLAPA Companions?
Please be aware that our current round is now closed, but you can register here for our next round, starting later in the year.
CLAPA Companions is a ‘pen pal’ scheme connecting young people in the UK, born with a cleft aged 6 – 17 through letters, emails, videos and audio messages.
The messages are sent through CLAPA to keep everyone safe and protect your identities and locations.
Good things about having a pen pal:
- Connect with a new friend
- Feel more positive about your cleft journey
- Share your experiences (about your cleft or something else
Who can take part?
You can join CLAPA Companions if you:
- Live in the United Kingdom
- Are aged 6-17
- Were born with a cleft
You can still join if:
- English is not your first language
- You would rather not write or read messages. You can send and receive video or voice messages if this would be better for you.
How does CLAPA Companions work?
- Fill in the CLAPA Companions sign up form. We need permission from your parent or carer if you are under 13 years old. We ask lots of different questions on our form to make sure we can match you up with the right person, and sometimes this can take a little longer. We might also need to have a video call with you to help us do this.
- We’ll tell you about your new pen pal. We’ll do our best to match you up with someone of a similar age and interests.
- Penpal A sends their first message to CLAPA. We’ll check this message to make sure it’s safe, then pass it on to Penpal B.
- Penpal B receives the message and sends CLAPA their reply. We’ll check this message to make sure it’s safe, then pass it on to Penpal A.
- Messages continue for six months, or until each Penpal has received five messages.
- Afterwards, CLAPA will ask each Penpal if they would like to keep in touch outside of CLAPA Companions. If both Penpals say yes, CLAPA will share your details with each other.
You are welcome to sign up to as many ’rounds’ of CLAPA Companions as you like.
About sending messages
This section explains how sending messages works, what kind of content you can and can’t include, and shares some ideas for what to talk about.
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Dos and Don'ts
Do be kind and polite in your messages. Do share things about your cleft, your hobbies and your interests.
Don't use unkind language which might upset someone. -
Keeping everyone safe
Your messages will be private between you, your pen pal and the person checking the message.
If we are worried about your safety, the person checking your messages might share them with someone else at CLAPA who will decide what to do next. -
Checking messages
Someone from CLAPA will read your message before it gets passed onto your penpal. This is to help keep everyone safe.
We check your messages don't include any content which isn't allowed, like this includes things like the name of your school or your full name. You can find more details about this below.
What can't be shared
If we read content in your message which is not allowed, we’ll remove this from the message before we pass it on, and we’ll let you and your parent or carer know.
If we think someone sent this content in a message because they wanted to harm or upset someone’s pen pal, we won’t pass on the message, and the sender won’t be able to take part in CLAPA Companions any longer. We might involve the CLAPA Safeguarding Team. We’ll then do our best to match up the other pen pal with someone else.
This includes the name of your school, or photos which show your school name or logo, like on your uniform.
Instead, you can talk about your school generally without using the name.
Don’t share your address or information that could help someone to figure out where you live.
Instead, you can talk about the nearest city to where you live (e.g. “I live near Manchester”), or your Cleft Team.
Don’t share any details which someone could use to contact you directly. This includes personal emails, phone numbers, social media profiles, gamer IDs, etc.
If you both want to stay in touch after CLAPA Companions, you can share these details then.
We’ll only share your first names (or nicknames if you prefer) with each other. Please just use your first name when sending your messages.
Don’t share videos, photographs or text which has violent or sexual content.
Remember to be kind and considerate in all messages that you send.
Remember to be kind and considerate in all messages that you send.
Ways to send a message
Get in touch at [email protected] if you need any help with your messages.
You can write a letter and post it to the CLAPA office, or scan it in and email it to us. See ‘Email or Digital Letter’ below if you’d like to send it to us by email.
If you send it through the post, this can give your pen pal something to look forward to, but this might take longer than sending an email.
Sometimes, letters in the post can get lost, so make sure you scan the letter or take a photo before sending it do us.
Letters can be posted to:
CLAPA Companions
CLAPA
The Green House
244-254 Cambridge Heath Road
LONDON
E2 9DA
Send an email to CLAPA that we will pass on to your pen pal.
Email address: [email protected]
To send a file which is too big to attach to an email, we recommend using one of these two free file-sharing services: One Drive or We Transfer. Here’s a guide to using One Drive and a guide to using We Transfer.
Create a video message or recording to say hi to your pen pal.
Email address: [email protected]
To send a file which is too big to attach to an email, we recommend using one of these two free file-sharing services: One Drive or We Transfer. Here’s a guide to using One Drive and a guide to using We Transfer.
Send a voice recording or audio message, so you can chat to your pen pal without being on camera.
Email address: [email protected]
To send a file which is too big to attach to an email, we recommend using one of these two free file-sharing services: One Drive or We Transfer. Here’s a guide to using One Drive and a guide to using We Transfer.
What should I talk about in my messages?
You can include whatever you like in your message as long as it’s within our guidelines. You could write about your favourite sport or TV show, where you went on holiday, what you like and don’t like about school, or anything else you want to share.
Just make sure you don’t share personal information like your full name, school name, address, social media details, or anything else not allowed based on our guidelines. This is to keep your identity and your location safe.
Here’s a list of things you might want to talk about when sending your message.
- How old you are
- What makes you, you
- Your favourite sports, games, music, YouTuber, TV show, animals, hobbies
- Somewhere you’ve been on holiday
- Your family, friends, pets
- What you do and don’t like about school
- Something you’ve done that you’re really proud of
- Something you’ve done that was scary
- Something you’ve done that was really fun
- Something you’re looking forward to
- What you want to be when you’re older
- A country you’d love to visit
- A celebrity you’d love to meet
- What type of cleft you were born with and how does it make you feel
- The best thing about you!
Sign up for CLAPA Companions
Fill in our registration form below to sign up for CLAPA Companions. We ask lots of different questions on our form to make sure we can match you up with the right person, and sometimes this can take a little longer. The more information you give us, the more we can do to find you the right pen pal.
Remember you need permission from a parent or carer if you are under 13 years old. If you’re 13 or older, it’s still best if you get their permission before taking part.
Whatever your age, you still need to give the name and details of a parent or carer and another trusted adult when signing up; your parent or carer will get a confirmation email to let them know you’ve signed up, even if they haven’t completed the consent form.
If you say you want to keep in touch with your pen pal after your round of CLAPA Companions is finished, we will need to get your parent or carer’s permission before sharing any contact details.
CYP -> Contact CLAPA's Children and Young People's Team
Get in touch with CLAPA's Children and Young People's Team. Messages are sent to [email protected]. Please note this is not an emergency service and messages are not checked outside of working hours.