Legacy
Legacy
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As winter deepens and NLC reaches the half way mark of our 4th consecutive Winter Wellbeing project, one of our winter team, Chris Clarke, blogs on the progress made so far - and what it means to be part of the community.
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“Ah yes, I remember you from last year's Winter Wellbeing. You came round when the house was freezing,” Maureen says, leaning against the door frame. “Well a week after your visit the Council called up and sorted my radiators – and now I’m snug as a bug!”
As North London Cares’ Winter Wellbeing project reaches the mid-point of its fourth year, one of the most pleasurable parts of the job is the sense of genuine progress. You check in on people that were, a year before, struggling with broken boilers, spiralling energy costs or isolation from family – and often discover that problems have been addressed. The familiarity and continuity this process brings is vital in building communities, and in showing the people North London Cares works with that they’re not alone – even during the coldest and most isolating parts of the year.
Winter Wellbeing started out in 2011/2012, as an emergency exercise when there was snow on the ground. It has since expanded to become an extensive door-knocking project running from December to March. The premise is simple: visit as many older neighbours as possible, checking that they’re warm, active, healthy and connected. We work in housing estates across Camden and Islington, in partnership with, and funded by, the two borough councils.
The help North London Cares' winter teams provide ranges from referrals to the Councils for people with practical problems – usually to do with energy costs, broken boilers or insulation – through to more urgent steps, such as the delivery of blankets and warm clothes or the provision of emergency fuel grants when the wolf is at the door.
And, of course, we try and encourage as many people as possible to join our Social Clubs and Love Your Neighbour schemes.
At the mid-point in the project we’ve knocked on over 2,800 doors in north London,speaking to more than 1,000 older neighbours face-to-face, referring 166 issues to the Council, and delivering 29 blankets and 17 cheques for fuel grants. We’ve also spoken to 355 small businesses, encouraging them to look out for older customers who might be struggling – and to make referrals or signpost to North London Cares for neighbours who are.
The work is physically demanding – navigating freezing cold tower blocks with byzantine numbering systems – and gives you a greater familiarity with doorbell and letterbox malfunctions than you’d perhaps like! But at the same time it’s extremely rewarding, allowing you to meet the full cross-section of north London’s older people.
Interactions are sometimes very stimulating, such as in the case of a Gospel Oak woman who quipped “Oh, so we're not forgotten, us oldies! I thought we were getting on everyone's nerves these days by living too long!” – prompting a lengthy discussion of how to address the challenges of an aging population.
And they’re sometimes quite emotional, as with David in Tufnell Park – a St Lucian man with severe health problems, who declared “I feel pain trying to conquer me. But I will conquer pain.”
Many people are witty or else deeply eccentric (a sign on the door declaring “Beware of the Guinea Pig” being my personal favourite), meaning no two days are the same. You emerge from the project on the eve of spring, with a real sense of the range and texture of north London’s communities. And you know that, through the interactions and interventions the Winter Wellbeing campaign creates, you've really helped a lot of older neighbours.
Winter Warmth 2014-15 goes on until mid-March, and the next volunteer day is Saturday 31st January, in Kilburn. Please sign up!.