Finding connection: the next steps
Posted by The Cares Family on 21st June 2019
Please note: this post is 65 months old and The Cares Family is no longer operational. This post is shared for information only
At The Cares Family, our mission is to bring people from different life experiences together. Over the past eight years, we've done this by connecting 15,000 older and younger people to share 400,000 interactions, 80,000 hours, 3,500 social clubs and 15,000 one-to-one hours.
But our mission is about more than simply bringing people together across the generations. It's also about connecting people across social, digital, cultural and attitudinal lines in our rapidly changing world. That's why we're so proud to have brought together 12 powerful and diverse voices in our new pamphlet "Finding connection in a disconnected age: stories of community in a time of change."
Over two weeks in June we've been sharing those stories online, one by one, receiving over 30,000 impressions on Twitter through our new @TheCaresFamily account. We're now very happy to publish the entire collection, in partnership with our wonderfully supportive partners at Nesta who first conceived this work in early 2019.
Over summer and autumn 2019, we'll be sharing these stories further afield, at conferences and speeches in different parts of the country. And we'll be celebrating those stories at a gathering in September – to help deepen the movement of 'people helping people' even more.
In the meantime, we were thrilled to receive a message of support from Debbie Weekes-Bernard from the Greater London Authority, who wrote that:
“Londoners know that our diversity is our greatest asset, but at a time when communities are rapidly evolving, it cannot be enough that we might live side by side but lead unconnected lives. Social integration is about how we can all live together better. Lessons from around the world show that a “hands-off” approach simply does not work which is why the Mayor has decided to make it a priority. To achieve social integration we must reduce barriers and inequalities that affect certain groups. That's why organisations like The Cares Family, which help people of all ages and backgrounds to connect, are essential. Social integration must be shaped, developed and led by civil society and communities as well as political leaders if it to be successful.”
We're grateful for everyone's support, in particular the GLA's and Nesta's – and especially all the authors who shared their stories so openly – with action, voice, power and vulnerability at their core. We can't wait to keep working with so many special partners to help our communities to find connection in a time of change.
