Legacy
Legacy
Please note: this post is 136 months old and The Cares Family is no longer operational. This post is shared for information only
What a summer it’s been! Throughout our six-week-long summer sessions our volunteers and their neighbours have been cooking together, making a film, taking and editing wonderful photographs, getting to grips with technology, debating and getting to know one another in the summer socials…
In partnership with Castlehaven Community Association and the Mary Ward Centre, we have been delivering a programme of activities to bring the local community together: to learn, to create and to socialise. Here's a round-up of everything that has been achieved over these past few weeks:
Older men’s cooking/ International cooking
North London Cares is all about bringing people together over a shared interest, and what better way to do that than over people’s shared interest of food? Over the six week period, we ran two separate cooking sessions weekly: one for the whole community to cook a range of international cuisines together, and one specifically for older men.
During the international cooking sessions, participants learnt to make Thai street food, traditional Chinese food, meatballs, lamb Rogan Josh and pizzas.
And the older gents made steak, shepherd’s pie and pizzas. Then everyone sat down together to enjoy the fruits of their labour together.
Mobile phone workshops
In our increasingly technologically-driven society, we interact with people on a daily basis using laptops, email, smart phones, tablets and other devices. For older people this can be a daunting world and they can feel left behind as they don’t always know how to use technology to their benefit. Through our mobile phone workshops our young volunteers were able to help older people text, save the numbers of friends and family and access apps.
Participants said they felt much more confident in using technology to connect with people, which can prove a vital lifeline for older and isolated people.
Following the success of the mobile phone sessions, we will be continuing our technology workshops from 24th September at 10am. Sign up on the right if you’d like to be involved…
Debating
In our debating sessions our volunteers and their older neighbours discussed everything from the monarchy to Syria to the new number 24 routemaster bus. Although the participants didn’t always agree on every point, the sessions were a great opportunity for people to put forward their point of view in a relaxed and friendly environment. And as you can see from this photo of Sophie and Walter, strong friendships were formed along the way!
Film making
Over the six weekly sessions, our film making group made a short film about Camden together, and were involved in everything from writing, filming, acting and editing their film. Clips were shown to 40 odd local people and the Mayor of Camden at the final Summer Social on August 23rd.
You can catch the final film soon! Watch this space…
Photography
We were very lucky to have some wonderful photographers come to discuss their fascinating work and teach participants how to take brilliant photographs and edit them creatively. Our long-standing volunteer Alys showed participants her black and white wedding photography and New York street photography project, as well as talking about the origins of street photography and demonstrating the impact of Photoshop.
Award-winning photojournalist Carol Storey wowed participants with stories of her experiences taking photographs in some of the world’s most challenging environments and working with difficult subject matter like sex work in Uganda.
Participants took some wonderful photographs and edited them using the latest technology. They chose the pictures which best reflect Camden to them and here are their final photographs, which were also displayed at Castlehaven for the final Summer Social. Check them out!
Summer Socials
The summer sessions were a great opportunity for the local community to get together and do something creative together. But the summer socials gave everyone a chance to let their hair down and have a chat over a glass of wine and some brilliant food. Our volunteers had a great time at discos, quiz nights, BBQs and international food events.
We’ve had a great summer and we couldn’t have done it without the help of our amazing and talented volunteers as well as our brilliant partners at Castlehaven Community Association. We're really looking forward to next year's sessions, and loads more coming up in the meantime!
Stay posted, and sign up to be part of it.