Crossroads Care Surrey
Outreach, befriending and digital support for carers
Crossroads Care Surrey reaches out to support unpaid carers, and in 2020 alone we provided over 2,100 carers living across Surrey the opportunity to take a break while receiving direct care and support for their loved ones.
Despite the Covid pandemic, we continued to support carers by taking the time to hear their stories about the impact of Covid on their lives and the increased pressures that it put on their caring role. One of the most important things for carers looking after a loved-one is that they feel supported by their wider community. As a direct response, our Community Outreach project was developed - bringing the support that was needed to help carers manage through and beyond the pandemic.
The Innovation Fund allowed us to continue this project throughout 2021, growing our reach through expanding our volunteer programme and supporting people with outreach shopping, prescription collections and / or befriending support calls, all of which have helped carers to feel less isolated and alone, and more connected with their community.
For people to connect with someone outside of their home and usual day-to-day environment can be life changing. For one carer, who is 54 and cares full-time for a child with complex needs, the support has been hugely helpful and given her time to just chat with someone and take her thoughts away from caring for a bit.
You can read more about our ambitions and project to date below and learn more about the services we offer by visiting our website or viewing our video
Over 70% of carers that we support are over the age of 61, and many have their own health conditions to manage while caring for their spouse, partner or friend. They increasingly find themselves housebound with fewer opportunities to meet up and take part in their local community. Therefore, by providing practical and emotional support from volunteers, we are helping to bring the community closer to carers and introducing them to new digital ways through which they can interact. Through our befriending project we hope to bring new digital experiences and opportunities to carers by building their digital awareness and skills.
We would like to see our project develop so that as more carers benefit from support from our volunteers, some may decide that they too can take part in facilitating project activities - for example using our platforms to host virtual support groups for other carers.
We are aware of the diverse range of communities that live in Surrey and with caring for a friend or family member being an experience that impacts on everyone, irrespective of their ethnicity, sexuality, or age, we want to ensure the diversity and inclusivity of the project by connecting with other charities that may be able to help us to reach out to groups of residents that are in the minority. We welcome the opportunity to build our contacts across the borough and connect with others to widen the scope and reach of these activities.
Crossroads Care Surrey have continued to build capacity and the means to support more unpaid carers across Surrey throughout 2021 with new volunteers that have joined us from across the county. We feel excited and inspired by the progress we are making in relation to recruiting volunteers and developing training support packages that will help them to feel a part of Crossroads Care Surrey, and to have the inspiration to stay with us for as long as they are able to.
By bringing in new volunteers and reviewing all our onboarding and support processes, we are steadily increasing the number of caring families that we can support through the volunteers, and in the five months since April 21 we have facilitated 740 volunteer sessions of Outreach shopping, and Befriending, to 62 carers living across Surrey, from 53 volunteers.
In September 2021, the Fundraising and Marketing Team at Crossroads Care was restructured and we also appointed a new Community Development Manager who is tasked with developing our volunteer project activities with new vigour, particular in relation to development of the digital tech and befriending activities but also looking at how we can bring other benefits to carers by integrating more with carers within their own communities.