Enfield Carers Centre has contacted Palmers Green Community asking for help from our readers for its Best Breakfast Campaign, which will take place in October. A good opportunity for those of us who are fortunate enough not to have carer responsibilities (at the moment anyway) to help this organisation provide its invaluable support to those who need it.
Dear Friends in Palmers Green,
Many of our registered carers live in N13 so it’s great to see that community spirit in N13 is live and kicking in the form of your website.
Who are we?
Enfield Carers Centre supports people living all over the borough who are looking after a partner, family member (whether adult or child) or close friend with a disability or illness, whether long term or life limiting. The last census in Enfield revealed that there are over 30,000 residents caring for someone and national statistics show that although less than 3 in 10 people think they will become a carer, actually 6 out of 10 of us will be carers! We’re not talking about those who do care work for a living. We’re talking about the unsung heroes who simply get on with the daily (sometimes thankless) task of looking after a loved one.
We support carers young and old (currently the youngest is 6 years old and cares for his Mum who’s a single parent with MS) and there’s no upper age limit. I’ve attached copies of past newsletters to give you an idea of our activities. We will soon have no future funding to continue our young carers support project and so we’re campaigning for help. Have a look at our Facebook and Twitter sites (see the links below) to get more of a feel of what we’ve been up to lately.
What are we doing?
We are organising a national fundraising campaign with our affiliated body Carers Trust (formerly Princess Royal Trust for Carers). The campaign is for Britain’s Best Breakfast and the idea is to encourage people to host a breakfast to raise money for young carer activities organised by Enfield Carers Centre or donate the money they would have spent on breakfast during the weekend of 17-19 October 2014. The Carers Trust website gives more details.
How can Palmers Green Community website help?
There are three main things you can help us with:
- We need to spread the word about our campaign and encourage people in N13 to host a breakfast and donate money to Enfield Carers Centre.
- We also need to recruit willing volunteers to help us approach outlets that sell breakfast e.g. pubs, cafés, restaurants, supermarkets and ask them to display our PR material and encourage their customers to make a small donation to Enfield Carers Centre for young carers. Our Volunteer Co-ordinator is Helen Watson and she’ll be happy to speak with you in more detail about this, once you’ve had a chance to think about the contents of this email.
- Please also have a think about what could be done at Palmers Green Community Website to raise awareness about Enfield Carers Centre, with people living in Palmers Green, who may not have previously recognised themselves as “a Carer”, but who could benefit from some additional, free support such as: counselling; respite breaks; training; wellbeing workshops; support groups; befriending services etc.
I look forward to hearing from you and to working in partnership with Palmers Green Community Website more closely so that we can help “hidden” carers in Palmers Green.
Kind regards,
Pamela Burke
Enfield Carers Centre
Britannia House
137-143 Baker Street
Enfield
EN1 3JL
T: 020 8366 3677
E:
W: www.enfieldcarers.org
