North London Cares
London is an amazing city, full of opportunity and change, but for some of our older neighbours - particularly those who have lived in London their entire lives and seen it change beyond recognition - those changes can be isolating, and deepen feelings of anonymity and loneliness that are already synonymous with old age. Similarly young Londoners can experience feelings of isolation and…
Love Your Neighbour is North London Cares' friendship matching scheme, which brings volunteers together with their older neighbours aged 65 and over. This 1-2-1 Friendship Programme will match you with an older neighbour in North London for regular conversation and company. This means that our older pals who are less able to go out and about, or who have lost some social connections over the years, can feel re-connected to their local community through friendship, chatter, and laughter.
Love Your Neighbour runs across the boroughs of Camden and Islington. You can still apply if you live outside these boroughs. To find out more you can read our Love Your Neighbour Guide but if you want to know what it's all about we think Dexter and Michael's friendship says it all!
This programme requires more commitment from volunteers, it’s not a one-off in the same way as a Social Club, you will be required to visit or speak to an older neighbour regularly each week. You can decide how this looks, whether it’s 3-4 20 minute phone calls each week, or a one hour visit to sit at home with them, whatever works for you and we’ll match you with someone looking for a similar thing. Building friendship can take time, which is why we ask volunteers on Love Your Neighbour to commit to at least six months of calls or visits once we’ve introduced them to an older neighbour.
What measures have you put in place to ensure volunteers’ safety during COVID-19?
At North London Cares we are continuing to encourage Covid-19 safety measures for matches on our LYN programme. This includes encouraging neighbours to wear face coverings (which we can provide free of charge), to sit at a 2m distance, and to ensure good ventilation by keeping doors and windows open where possible. We assess older neighbours' homes to ensure they are suitable for a visit.
Lots of our matches are meeting outdoors as much as possible and if the weather permits. Importantly, we are having open and honest conversations with older and younger neighbours about their concerns, to ensure everyone feels comfortable. Quite a few of our matches have decided that they would only like to keep in touch over the phone, and this can work well too.
