Funding for Older People's Charities

It has been a long time since I last posted but I have been busy busy busy. I am proud to be still working for a charity for older pople. But there is sad news I'm afraid. There are several services we have not been able to get funding for. Those include toe nail cutting, befriending and advocacy. As a result we are going to have to charge for these services or lose them altogether which would be a great loss to older people in the community. Also the latter would mean, almost certainly, redundancies for important and valuable members of staff.

For many house-bound older people, receiving a 'befriender' into their homes is the only person that they see from one month to another. A friendly face to chat to them, make them a cup of tea, listen to their worries. It is vital to their well being. Also the Advocacy Service offers them a voice when they have no voice, a person they can trust, who will stand up for them and confront people they do not have the strength or confidence to confront. To help them with form filling, help them to understand difficult documents, to protect them from bogus people or neighbours who might take advantage of them. It will be a sad loss indeed. How can we ask these people to pay for this service when they often are already in debt or confusion and in need of financial help and advice?

Fund raising is the possible answer, but on an enormous scale. The local authorities, because of the cuts, cannot fund these services anymore, as a result, this is a sad day for the older members of our society.