Legacy
Legacy
Please note: this post is 101 months old and The Cares Family is no longer operational. This post is shared for information only
Back in February, on an unusually bright winter's morning, we held our brunch club in the brilliant Cafe Barcelona in Streatham. So many people turned up that our volunteers and their older neighbours quite literally took over the cafe. Conversation and coffee flowed. Sofas and tables were rearranged so as many people could be (safely) packed in as possible. And one by one, Helmut, Frank and Tony arrived for their first ever social club.
A few months before the brunch, we’d met Frank at a GP surgery through our Winter Wellbeing project. Frank had lost his wife of over 60 years just a few months before. We’d been chatting to him about getting to know his younger neighbours over a pint at our Pub Club, but he didn’t seem convinced it was for him.
Helmut, who we’d also met at a GP surgery a few months back, also seemed hesitant. Tony had rung up just the day before the brunch club to find out more about South London Cares after spotting one of our posters. But he had revealed he was nervous about the prospect of social clubs and found it “so difficult to make friends”, so we were’t sure whether to expect him. But there they all were! Frank captivating volunteer Rachel with stories of his time in the airforce in the 1940s, Tony giving and receiving book recommendations, and Helmut, getting on so well with older neighbour Frances that they said goodbye with a kiss on the hand.
Seeing these gents get involved was so special as it can be tricky to get men along to social clubs. The idea of conversation and a cuppa isn’t necessarily something men, especially in their eighties, are used to or find appealing. Research shows that older men are less likely to get involved with group activities, as well as less likely to have close mates they can call on if they’re feeling down: those types of friendships that increase your sense of belonging, that can lift you through the bad times. That’s why the majority of our outreach efforts at South London Cares focus on getting people (and particularly, men) involved who don’t have much to fill their days already. We concentrate on pharmacies, pubs, GP surgeries, supermarkets and bookies rather than other community groups.
We recently caught up with Frank who we hadn’t seen for a few months. He’s struggling to make it to social clubs but misses his younger neighbours’ company so much that we’re looking to match him up for a weekly visit through our Love Your Neighbour programme. Helmut and Tony have become regulars at our social clubs. Tony told us last week that they’re like “sizzling adventures”. Not only does he enjoy the social clubs themselves, but says they’ve also acted “as a gateway to a more exciting and daring lifestyle”. Instead of "just staying at home”, he’s out exploring London, a city which is home to his many new mates.
