Suffolk Family Carers
Caring Through Time
Suffolk Family Carers is a regional charity providing support services to socially isolated and disadvantaged people caring for a relative, friend, partner or child who cannot manage without help because of illness, age or a disability.
Every week almost 40,000 people become voluntary family carers. There are currently six million family carers in the UK; by 2010, 20% of the UK population will become family carers. In Suffolk, the economic value of the contribution made by family carers is a staggering £908 million annually (Carers UK 2007).
There is a need to raise awareness of the role that unpaid family carers play, and in turn, to raise awareness of the support that is on offer to them through Suffolk Family Carers. 'Caring Through Time' is a project that will encourage family carers to share their personal histories in examining the social history and development of social caring in Suffolk during the post-war period.
Creative heritage learning activities are a way of bringing isolated and disadvantaged family carers of all ages together. The project will increase opportunities for learning about our heritage in relation to the development of caring roles and responsibilities through time. Materials and photographs will be collected from carers who have been involved in earlier schemes and from organisations providing social care. ‘Caring Through Time’ will be delivered through film photography and digital imaging and will result in a traveling exibition for display during Carers Week 2008. Suffolk's museum service, an oral historian, and a social care expert are all participating. The project will personally benefit the 60 family carers who are directly involved and also help raise awareness of the role that all family carers play initially throughout the region (and potentially nationally)!
The biggest challenge of ‘Caring Through Time’ was acquiring funding for the project. To overcome this, an application was made to the Heritage Lottery Fund, and Suffolk Family Carers were awarded £44,500.
There will be heritage learning activities at Suffolk Family Carers Centre in Claydon and at the Outreach Link Centers, which will include using the digital photography to create memory books, ‘Talking Head’ videos, creative writing, family carers stories in sound, Young Carers using photography to record their lives, as well as visits to museums and heritage centers.
'Caring Through Time' will ensure positive creative learning experiences that are available to all carers. Course participants will create a memory book or a piece of unique artwork. This will be supplemented by a significant display of materials examining the personal and societal roots of caring through time.
Suffolk Family Carers celebrated its 20 year Anniversary in 2008. To commemorate this they held a service for family carers in Bury St Edmunds Cathedral on June 10th. Many family carers attended, along with Suffolk Family Carers' 20 Year Anniversary Patron Joanna Lumley. Suffolk Family Carers fundraised in early 2008 for respite care to make it possible for the family carers to attend the service.
Quotes
“As our society ages our need for carers rises. Care is an issue that will affect us all in some way in the future. Nobody understands this better than the many organisations in the voluntary and community sector who support carers and the cared for, and who advocate for them.” — Gordon Brown MP, Prime Minister
Contact information
Contact the Suffolk Family Carers
Suffolk Family Carers.org
Caring Through Time Exhibition