Carers Week is an annual campaign to celebrate carers and raise awareness of the challenges that comes with the caring role. This year, the theme is “Building Carer Friendly Communities”, which focuses on developing communities that support carers to look after their loved ones well, while recognising that they are individuals with needs of their own. Such communities make carers feel recognised and valued. If you are part of or if you know a Carer Friendly Community, please mention them in the comments section below so we can give due recognition. Please let us know too what makes you feel that way about that community.

Did you know that a lot of carers don’t identify themselves as Carers? Because of this, they tend to not look for or are not aware of help and support that’s available for them. If you care, unwaged, for someone, then you are a carer and there’s a lot of support available for you. Carers are valued members of the community and we are proud to be working with a lot of fantastic ones here at the centre.

Credits: http://www.carersweek.org/

It is for this reason that we are celebrating Carers Week, together with a lot of other organisations around Manchester and all over the country.

Yesterday, we held a well-attended Information Event at the Woodhouse Park Lifestyle Centre. We are grateful that the Lord Mayor of Manchester, Councillor Eddy Newman, came to join us during the day, chatting with visitors and stallholders alike, before giving a speech celebrating carers and caring prior to lunch. We would also like to thank all the organisations and volunteers that came to support us during the day, as well as to Asda Wythenshawe, Boots Wythenshawe, Costa Coffee Wythenshawe, and Mr Baker’s Fish and Chips for their donations towards our raffle and tombola at the event. Of course, thank you to all parents and carers that came to celebrate with us – hats off to all of you! We hope you were able to enjoy the day and find out some new, useful information from the event.

Today, we had crafts at the centre, led by our good friend, Ian. They decorated garden pots and mini bird cages, photos of which I will post later.

We’ll be holding a Game Day here tomorrow, from 10am to 1pm, and we’re taking the Operation, Snakes and Ladders, and Twister games out of storage. I also heard that we have a new item coming in, specially for Carers Week – something to look out for! So do pop in and visit us for a game or two tomorrow if you’re free. It’ll be fun!

On Thursday, Manchester Parent Carer Forum will be holding a coffee morning at the centre, and everyone’s invited! MPCF helps shape and develop services available to children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in Manchester by listening and gathering parent-carers’ views and comments, and then feeding back trending issues to the Local Authority, as well as with Education, Health, and Social Care partners. If you would like to learn more about the work that the forum does, or if you’d simply like to chat with fellow parent-carers and have a brew, please feel free to visit us between 10am to 12 noon on Thursday.

The centre will be closed on Friday to allow our staff and volunteers to get a well-deserved rest after a very busy week.

Thanks again for everyone’s support this week! And to all the carers that we know: You Are Amazing!

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More photos from our Information Event yesterday: