Carers Campaign Workshop
On Thursday 25 April we hosted an interactive workshop providing local carers with the opportunity to come together with a selection of professionals to co-design the key messages for this years local Carers Week campaign, 10-16 June.
Carers Week is a national campaign led by Carers UK offering a different focus to raise the profile of unpaid care each year. This year's theme is 'putting carers on the map' so we thought what better way to do that than providing a space for carers to be listened to and shape their own local campaign messages.
So what happened on the day?
We had five workshops running during the day facilitated by staff from Middlesbrough Voluntary Development Agency (who deliver We Care You Care), Teeswide Safeguarding Adults Board and Teesside Mind. Each workshop had a specific focus which covered:
*What does a carer look like?
*What does the word ‘carer’ mean to you?
*How do you care for yourself?
*What would you like a Health Care Professional to know about unpaid care?
*What does Safeguarding mean to local carers?
*Identify key messages to share for Carers Week.
"We were blown away by the open engagement of the carers that attended and we are extremely grateful to each and everyone of you for sharing your experiences and getting stuck in to all the workshops.
As we are not a delivery service we don't get many opportunities to directly engage with carers in this way so it really was a privilege to connect to local carers and something that has really resonated with all the professionals in attendance.
We now have some fantastic messaging that we are pulling together to form this years campaign; the most prominent being 'you are not alone' which is such an important message, carers shared how isolating the role can be due to the pressures and responsibilities on them. We are looking to create some social media posts highlighting local support, a short video capturing why it is important that carers are identified and the wonderful photos we have of carers and professionals in our photobooth. SPOILER ALERT: There are some props involved! We can't wait to share everything with you!" Kelly Hodgson, We Care You Care Project Lead.
“The event was a massive success, we had such amazing attendance from carers and professionals alike and the feedback has been incredible. We couldn’t have wished for a better day.
Each of the attendees were brilliantly open and honest and the event allowed them to have the freedom to share and speak with their peers and professionals in a really interactive and positive way.
I am over the moon that the interactive sessions were such a hit and we have had some truly amazing art work come from the event, art work that gives an honest representation from the voices of carers and local professionals.
Thank you to everyone who came and engaged so positively with the session and made the day so worthwhile and positive.” Chris Layfield, MVDA.
