Home help for H&F older people: take a survey!

I've been asked by H&F Circle, an excellent group for people in H&F who are over 50, to help publicise a survey they are running about a possible new home help service. The home help service would be provided by older people themselves, and would not just be restricted to the over 50s. There are, of course, lots of reasons why people of any age might need some help around the home, so have a look at this and if you can do take the survey to help the Circle assess what sort of demand there might be out there in the community.

Jake Garber, from H&F Circle, told me:

"Hammersmith & Fulham Circle is a local community organisation for older people and we’re looking for opportunities to ask residents of all ages their thoughts on a new service we’re developing.

The Circle provides practical help around the home with things like DIY, gardening and cleaning for its members, who are all over 50. Since we've started providing our service we've heard from people younger than 50 who would be interested in getting some practical help themselves. We've also heard from older people who would be interested in earning a bit of money helping others out. 

So we're investigating the potential of a new service we are calling Helper+, a service in which anyone in the borough can get access to the skills and experience of one of our older helpers for any practical help they may need around the home. 

To make sure that we design a service that would be really useful we want to hear from people who buy services to make their lives easier and better. We’d really appreciate it if you could help us find out the opinions of as many people as possible. There are four main ways to be involved...

• Give us just 20 minutes of your time for a telephone interview
• Pass this message on to other people who might be interested in helping us
• Take our simple online survey here

If you know anybody over 50 who might like to earn a little money helping out, then put them in touch!"

Hammersmith & Fulham Circle is a membership organisation that connects people over the age of 50 who want to share interests and make the most of what’s on locally.

Members can also get help with small jobs like DIY, gardening or technology through their reliable Neighbourhood Helpers - local people who want to share their talents and skills.

Hammersmith and Fulham Council is seed funding the Circle over its first three years, so full credit to them for taking a punt on this.

As a social enterprise, Hammersmith & Fulham Circle will re-invest any profits into the community it serves, and from everything I've heard about this project it sounds like an excellent initiative so expect to hear more from me about it. I last reported on them in Janaury this year, so hopefully there wont be such a gap next time. 

In the meantime anyone wanting to know more about their work can contact Jake Garber using the following details:

jake@hfcircle.org.uk

0207 089 6952

www.hfcircle.org.uk