Legacy
Legacy
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We're so excited to welcome our brilliant new Projects Officer, Hannah Davies, to the South London Cares team. Here, Hannah writes about why she wanted to come and work at SLC, and what she hopes to achieve over the coming months and years.
I am so excited to finally be starting at South London Cares. After discovering SLC four months ago I feel honoured to be joining the team at such a vital stage in the growth for the charity.
South London has always been my home and apart form a short love affair with Bristol during my university years I have never strayed too far. I find myself amazed on a daily basis that I am still discovering new places within South London and constantly learning more about it's complicated history. Having just moved to Camberwell to live above my brother's gastropub I have been thrown into another new neighbourhood. There is never a dull moment with the high street constantly buzzing with such a diverse group of people. It is a great place to see the heart of what I think South London should be about: community.
Community is something that seems to have drifted from us slowly over the generations. This is such a shame and not something that should just be accepted. That is one of the main factors that drew me to South London Cares. I cannot wait to be part of a community network which is going to help in reconnecting people and integrating our older neighbours with young professionals. Building those bridges will be such an important part of trying to combat the high numbers of socially isolated people.
SLC's Social Clubs were a massive draw for me. They're something I have never done before and I am looking forward to seeing all the new relationships begin to form. I find older people can sometimes be put on a shelf by the younger generations - people seem to forget that they have so much to offer.
Having an older family myself I love hearing the stories of my dad's childhood and how he can remember being 7 and hearing Neville Chamberlain announce that we had gone to war. There are so many people, both young and old, out there with fascinating stories to tell just waiting for someone to listen.
My experience for this role comes from working for Marie Curie Cancer Care, assisting with the East London Helper Service. The service is a befriending service for anyone with a life limiting illness. Through that work, the impact that social isolation can have on people's lives was really driven home to me. It is amazing the difference simply having a cup of tea and a chat can have on someone's wellbeing and state of mind. I was inspired seeing the impact you could make on someone's life by just showing them the that you cared - it seems such a small thing but it can have such a big impact.
I am looking forward to bringing my experience at the Helper Service to begin South London Cares' Love Your Neighbour programme and also can't wait for the new challenge of running social clubs. At least one of these will be a baking club - as baking is definitely my favourite activity.
From Brixton village to Bermondsey markets South London is full of great places to hold some exciting new social clubs and start the Love Your Neighbour programme which works well at our sister charity North London Cares.
It is an exciting time and what better way to start my time with South London Cares than with an afternoon tea party with a quiz on at my very first social club this afternoon. Why not join us?