Legacy
Legacy
Please note: this post is 39 months old and The Cares Family is no longer operational. This post is shared for information only
We opened our doors spontaneously amid rioting in August 2011, because we saw that the fast pace of change in our city could leave both older and younger neighbours feeling left out or left behind. But we also believed in the power of local action: that by helping people share time and new experiences, we could all move forward, together.
By our first autumn, we already had a growing network of 175 volunteers sharing time with their older neighbours. But our volunteers wanted to do more to support the community. So over winter, we asked them to get involved in what would become our Winter Wellbeing project, running through to March 2012. Winter is a tough time of year for older and younger people alike, but by connecting on doorsteps and later in warm community halls, the generations came together.
In 2013 we started running social clubs twice a week — providing a space for older and younger neighbours to laugh together, learn together and establish friendships with one another.
Between 2013 and 2014, those friends met up at 266 social clubs across Camden and Islington and enjoyed well over 12,000 interactions together. Our model of bringing the generations together was working.
North London Cares began 10 years ago as a tiny idea in a single place. But by 2015 it had grown into a bigger movement. We were delivering four distinct programmes to bring our community together – Social Clubs, Love Your Neighbour, Outreach and Community Fundraising, all of which helped younger and older people alike to feel valued, vibrant and visible. We had also welcomed a sister charity, South London Cares, to the family.
In 2011 when we first started, we had no money to fund our mission at all. By 2018, 40% of North London Cares’ budget was funded by you – the community. Through sporting challenges, community events, individual donations, business partnerships and online campaigns, hundreds of north Londoners were helping to fund the community they love.
You can celebrate with us!
This month we are hosting ten in-person social clubs, the most we have run in a month since the beginning of the pandemic. From intergenerational boxing, open mic sessions to Art Attack, we cannot wait to welcome our neighbours once again to their local space and share time, laughter and new experiences together.
