How you can set up a Caritas project for older people

As we enter a third lockdown, Caritas East Anglia is putting on a follow-up webinar on The Richness of Many Years of Life, to encourage us to reach out to the lonely. Jacinta Goode reports.

Over Christmas we became more aware than ever of some of the difficulties and pain of living in isolation. Now that we’re in a third lockdown that isolation will continue for some time to come.  During the course of the pandemic, we’ve also become more aware, perhaps, that there are people in our communities who are isolated all the time. Caritas East Anglia would like to encourage anyone who wishes to support them.

In November, we hosted a webinar entitled ‘The Richness of Many Years of Life,’ which was attended by people from across the diocese.  We considered the ways in which older people bring so much to our lives and how important it is to the life of the community that we value and cherish our older people.  We began to look at ways in which we could support them.

The speakers were inspiring, but would you know how to make anything happen in your parish? Would you know who to speak to, to get things started? How could you find out if others are already involved in similar work that you could join? Who could support you in setting up a new project? How would you find out about safeguarding issues that need to be addressed? Will the project need funding? If so – how can that be sourced?

If these questions spark your interest, you may want to attend our follow-up meeting. At 7pm on Wednesday January 13, we will be online again to support you in moving forward with any ideas you have. We can suggest ways to find out if there are projects already running which you could join, as well as talking you through the steps to take if you’re considering setting up something new.

Toolkits to support your parish in setting up projects safely and effectively have been produced by Caritas Social Action Network (CSAN) in collaboration with SVP and Catholic Care Leeds, both of which will be featured in the meeting.

To join the meeting, please click on this link.

For more information, contact Jacinta: caritas@rcdea.org.uk

Image above from Pixabay

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