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2024-03-31-accounts

Caraway Trustees Annual Report

for year-ending 31 March 2024

Registered Charity Number 1177743 (CIO Foundation Registered March 2018)

www.caraway.uk.com

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Caraway Trustees Annual Report

Charitable Objectives

Spiritually resourcing the older person, “To promote social inclusion for the public benefit and to relieve the needs of older people who are socially excluded by virtue of their age or dementia, by providing such support as deemed appropriate to assist them to integrate into society in accordance with Christian Principles.”

Our Vision

Our vision is to give those in their older years a voice, to be alongside the lonely, isolated and bereaved and create community, where

connections can be made, and friendships can flourish. We want to see a society in which every older person is valued, affirmed and able to realize their full potential.

Our Mission Statement

To promote the spiritual wellbeing of those in their later years, in community, care or church, reaching out to those of all faiths or none, so that each older person continues to feel significant and to flourish until the end of their life.

Caraway works in partnership with churches, voluntary and statutory agencies to support the older person in their local community and to be an effective advocate for those whose voice is not heard. We have a special focus on the dementia community In Southampton.

We now have nine Anna Chaplains together with Revd Dr Canon Erica Roberts, who is the City Chaplain for Older People and Revd Dave Hendra who is our new City Chaplain for Dementia. They enable the work of Caraway to be delivered in a way that is relevant for the local context.

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The Context

In Southampton City, there is a total population of 263,769, of whom 3% are over the age of 65 years, 37,768 people

(https://data.southampton.gov.uk/population/population-size-and-structure/). In 2023 there were 1,726 people aged 65 or over in Southampton diagnosed with dementia, however the number of people living with dementia in the city was estimated to be significantly higher (2,663). This is expected to reach 4,480 by 2040. Of these, about 60% are living in the community and 40% are cared for in residential care. There are 32 care homes in the city, and 154 supported housing complexes. (www.housingcare.org). Day care services, carers and clubs for older people have largely been cut by the council and are provided by voluntary and charitable bodies such as Caraway. Dementia services have particularly been cut, closing the last council-run care home, closing the ward for dementia in-patients, and stopping the Dementia Navigators service which was provided by the Alzheimer’s Society.

The Trustees have:

Our Aims and Objectives

  1. To identify and meet the pastoral and spiritual needs of older people, their families and carers, in the community, within the church and for those who are live in residential care.

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  1. To build bridges between churches and their local community within the City of Southampton, between voluntary and statutory bodies and between the generations in our society, in order to be an effective advocate for the older person.

  2. To support, resource and train volunteers in identifying the wider challenges of growing older and enabling them to support these needs appropriately e.g. loneliness, bereavement, dementia, end of life issues.

  3. To help the local Church recognise the enormous resource of wisdom, experience and gifts that this generation can offer the wider community and to enable each older person to realise their full potential.

Rev Canon Dr Erica Roberts, City Chaplain for Older People

As usual, I want to begin by expressing my gratitude for all those who are part of Caraway and enable us to make such a difference for our older community in Southampton. Our core team are hardworking, passionate and determined to do their best to ensure that all our volunteers are enabled and

resourced. We have a growing body of volunteers without

whom this important work could not occur. I am also indebted to our Trustees, who are vision makers, and all contribute in different ways.

My highlight of the year has to be the appointment of our City Chaplain for Dementia, Revd Dave Hendra, licensed by the Bishop of Winchester, and like all our Chaplains is licensed to the BRF, Anna Chaplaincy Network. To the best of our knowledge this is the first such post in the country and Dave is now supported by a second volunteer Chaplain, Karen Kingston. Together they will provide more in-depth care for those living with dementia and their carers and we are already seeing the impact of this partnership.

Two more Anna Chaplains have been commissioned this year, both partnering with Caraway and it’s exciting to have two further Chaplains in training. Our vision of one Anna Chaplain for each community is slowly being realised. Caraway provides

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training, support and supervision for all the chaplains and we provide space for us to pray and resource each other.

As part of our growing Chaplaincy Service, we will launch our Positivity Toolkit at the Refresh and Resource Day to resource those who are socially isolated. We are sure this will be well received, and we hope to make the kit available for purchase to those outside Southampton.

So another exciting year, where we continue to see growth in breadth and depth in our work. A huge thank you to everyone involved in making this a reality.

Dr Ros Simpson, Chair of Trustees

Caraway is 6 years old! We have developed a strong place in the community of Southampton and are respected and valued by Churches, Health Services, and other Voluntary organisations with whom we love working. It has been a great pleasure and honour to see many amazing outcomes of our collective work to enhance the spiritual life of older people in Southampton.

Life is tough if you are growing old in Southampton. The journey

can be lonely and people can feel anxious and unsure how to get help and improve their situation.

We have a real heart for people living with dementia and their families and believe that a community of such families can bring friendship, joy and hope into the situation.

I love to see smiles on the faces of people with dementia at a Memory Café and it melts my heart to see a carer who was in tears be comforted by someone else on the carers course. I feel happy that the dementia journey is better informed, more fun and engages carers, those with dementia, chaplains and volunteers alike, sharing the journey together. The journey is better together. I also see people at the end of the dementia journey who are grateful to have been supported and loved and that they go on connecting with us, like a family.

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Our spiritual resources increase in number and circulation, and events are well attended and appreciated.

The family just gets bigger as we get to know more families. We need funding to pay for our administrative staff, and to run the memory cafes and carers courses and ongoing carer support groups.

Well done to all our trustees, staff, volunteers and area workers for all you have achieved as teams in 2023-4 for the older people of Southampton.

How Caraway activities have delivered the public benefit

For any Older People in the Community, the Anna Chaplains

Anna Chaplains are part of the BRF National Programme to develop Chaplaincy across the UK (www.annachaplaincy.org.uk). Anna Chaplains are named after the widow, Anna, who appears with Simeon in Luke’s gospel; both are good role models of faithful older people. Anna Chaplains are there for people of strong, little or no faith at all.

Anna Chaplains provide spiritual care appropriate for the local community; they can connect with the local churches, residential facilities and other community groups that care for the older person, listening to the local need and responding appropriately.

The chaplains are well led by Rev Canon Dr Erica Roberts, City Chaplain for Older People in Southampton.

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Some of our licensed Anna Chaplains and one of our trainees

Our Anna Chaplains are:

They are marvellous and have worked tirelessly all year supporting people face to face or on telephone calls, writing for our resources, creating and facilitating new community groups and helping the Vintage Adventure and Holidays at Home packs to reach the frail and housebound. They are supported by their own churches or a church in the area they work and receive referrals from them and from other sources such as health professionals via the Caraway website.

A chaplain helping someone makes contact and listens well to their story. They listen to the family’s story as appropriate and they offer comfort, advice on end of life care, support through times of transition such as getting a diagnosis of dementia or cancer, and offer bereavement help. They encourage the person to make links with their local church and community as suitable, and they try to encourage ongoing supportive relationships.

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Feedback from Rev Dave Hendra – Chaplain for Dementia

Dave joined the team in December. We asked him a variety of questions and here are his responses:

  1. How many people were you in contact with in the week before Christmas/Easter?

In the week before Easter, during my three-dayweek, I estimate I was in contact with this many people:

I have supported through telephone calls / meeting face to face / ... ten individuals over the last month. Some of these I had repeat contact with over the preceding months.

  1. What community groups do you support by dropping in, organising or facilitating the work of volunteers there and how many people come to these groups each session, on average?

The three main community groups I co-support are: The Sholing Memory Café - 30 on average. The Carers Course - 8 on average. A new Mens Group - 4 on average (soon hopefully to be expanding to 6 and beyond).

4. Please tell us a story of someone you have supported through loneliness, isolation, and/or end of life.

Here is a bit of feedback from a guest of our newly launched Sholing Memory Cafe: "This is something my husband actually wants to come to. It has been hard encouraging him to leave the house for new things. But he has really enjoyed chatting with some of the other men. It has been hard getting him to

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stop talking! I've also found lots of people I had a prior connection with which has been a great surprise."

A bit of feedback from one of our Carers Course participants. Anonymous: "Many thanks again to you, the team, and fellow group members for thought provoking material and valuable support - the course has made a positive difference in my life. I hope to see you soon."

One particular example is the opportunity I have had to chat regularly on the phone with the carers of a person living with dementia. The phone calls don't seem to amount to much, no great leaps forward are discernable, and yet the carers are always very appreciative of the simple opportunity to talk and to be connected to something beyond the immediate demands of their domestic situations.

  1. What do you like most about your role as a chaplain for older people? I like being able to spend time with people who may have dropped off society's radar because of their circumstances. I also love seeing peer support develop during the activities we run. I enjoy seeing people who have been isolated, now connected with others and through that, feeling more hopeful than they were before. Noticing people's sense of self worth increase is fab.

  2. What Is your greatest challenge for your work in the coming 12 months? I think my greatest challenge might be prioritising one to one contact over administrative demands.

Anna Chaplain for Southampton West – Rev Margaret Hague

Margaret is our paid Anna Chaplain for Southampton West: Maybush, . Lordshill and Rownhams, sponsored by the Henry Smith Charity Please see her Impact Report included here.

During the past year I have visited each of the 5 large sheltered housing blocks usually on a monthly basis, with a colleague visiting a 6[th] . 2 of the blocks have ceased their weekly coffee mornings creating a challenge to keep in touch with the residents, although we still deliver the monthly resources to them. Calling in to these blocks and chatting with various ones who pass by (including staff) remain a

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great way to informally build relationships in a safe, relaxing space, often knocking on a door for a quick chat as I pass by or posting the Vintage Adventure @ Home or Home Prayer Card through their door. It’s good to see one resident now regularly attending Lord’s Hill Church and another considering this. I also support the Lord’s Hill bereavement group once a month along with a small knitting group! A few days before Christmas Hamwic Brass Band came to 2 of the sheltered housing blocks to play Christmas carols outside. Many came out of their flats and really enjoyed singing the carols whilst some opened their windows and listened. A Christmas evangelical newspaper was given to each and everyone, including the band, enjoyed the event. During the summer we prayer walked around 2 of the housing blocks and continue to pray for individual needs, in person over the phone or through the prayer team.

Home visits continue to be a rich blessing to the recipient and myself! Often during the prayer time at the end of a visit the recipient will pray the Lord’s blessing upon me! Home Communion has been taken also. I still spiritually support one gentleman who has now relocated to a care home.

Over 100 Vintage Adventure packs and 72 Home Prayer Cards are delivered each month and these remain a valued lifeline to those who no longer attend church and those who are seeking God’s peace for the first time.

Alongside establishing relationships with many residents we are continuing to establish good working relationships with the Housing Support Workers. We have also been contacted by the Management of a new Care Home opening soon on the outskirts of Lord’s Hill.

Doors of opportunity continue to open, therefore we plan to grow our team. There are over 850 older people living in Lord’s Hill alone, many of whom are unable to walk to the Church. We have 2 volunteers who will start Anna Chaplaincy training this Spring who will add to the work in Lord’s Hill West. New volunteers have also joined the team at our weekly Coffee, Cake & Connect drop in.

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It has been exciting and an honour to work alongside the local Church during this past year as they have undergone significant changes with a new Minister. The outlook for Lord’s Hill West remains exciting.

Loneliness Project

Careful research has been done through interviews with Chaplains, volunteers and users, so we can better understand what would be helpful in situations where someone is housebound or isolated. Knowing how loneliness and isolation can adversely affect physical and mental well-being, we wanted to develop a toolkit that could provide hope, laughter and fun for those who are lonely, living with dementia and particularly those who are housebound. Resources that would go beyond a visit or phone call and help an individual build their own positivity and hope in between contact.

Strength for Today, Bright Hope for Tomorrow

A Positivity Toolkit - a set of resources that encourage positive mental well-being through activities, ideas and information. These will be gifted to an individual who is struggling with loneliness, particularly those who are housebound, and may also be living with dementia. The resources are being used by our Anna Chaplains but are available for anyone to purchase and use or gift to someone.

The Positivity Toolkit is a resource to encourage positivity and hope, that can be tailored to an individual according to their needs and interests. It has been carefully

designed in warm uplifting colours, each item bears the logo ‘Strength for Today, Bright Hope for Tomorrow’ and is presented in a cheery yellow bag. It has a number of

core items that Caraway has produced and along with other items a kit can be tailor made for the recipient.

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Content can include:

Developing our Dementia work: in collaboration with Solent NHS, Hampshire and Isle Of Wight Integrated Care Board and Admiral Nurses, we provide:

Memory Cafés, people helping people

In March 2024 there were 10 Memory Cafes that allow over 200 people to attend a local memory café supported by about 70 volunteers.

These amazingly supportive, friendly, helpful, creative set of now 10 groups has evolved very quickly over the past 2 years. People living with dementia are meeting others with dementia, carers are talking to carers, and a supportive setting is allowing fellowship to include all of the group. This includes love and support when someone is ill and can’t attend, when a dementia friend dies, or goes into a

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care home. There has been an amazing volunteer response too, and the love and continuity they give to each setting is invaluable. I have seen true compassion in action, supported by churches who offer their premises free and who support the groups in many ways including in prayer. A true community response.

Bitterne Park Memory Café, held twice a month 2[nd] and 4[th] Wednesday afternoon of the month, 15 to 20 guests

St Denys Memory Café , held twice a month 1[st] and 3[rd] Tuesday afternoons, 15 to 20 guests

Lord’s Hill Coffee, Cake and Connect , weekly sessions Thursday afternoons, of which 2 are dementia focussed with reminiscence and singing.

Lordswood Memory Café held monthly on the 1[st] Wednesday of the month. 10 to 16 guests.

Maybush Memory Café , held monthly on the 3[rd] Tuesday afternoon of the month. 20 to 24 guests.

Shirley Memory Café , monthly session on the 3[rd] Monday afternoon of the month. 30 to 40 guests.

Sholing Memory Café, started February 2024, 4[th] Monday afternoon of the month, 30 guests.

Thornhill Memory Café run by Admiral nurses, every 1[st] Tuesday afternoon of the month, 15 to 20 guests.

Asian Family Matters, held at the Vedic Society Temple Hall, every 3[rd] Monday afternoon of the month, 10 guests.

Weston Memory Café, held monthly on the 1[st] Wednesday afternoon of the month, 15 to 20 guests.

The cafés are supported by a large number of musicians, exercise providers, activities, health professionals, social care providers and local organisations such as the MAST theatre and The Heritage organisations of Southampton. Financial support has come from the Narional Lottery Community Fund.

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Working with the Southampton Dementia Friendly Steering Group, Southampton Dementia Festival Group, NHS Admiral Nurses, Unpaid carers In Southampton, Time for Dementia, an Alzheimers Society project and the MAST theatre In Southampton

Caraway is represented on the Citywide Dementia Steering Group to improve connection, services and to liaise with other organisations. Through this group, we develop links and connections that provide opportunities to improve the service for people with dementia.

Feedback from a community partner, Alzheimers Society, Time for Dementia Project:

We have been so grateful for your support, and we hope we can continue working alongside you. We regularly mention your work at our meetings and are grateful for every opportunity to meet with a group, or a family, and spread the word about Time for Dementia. We know that the participating families enjoy and look forward to these visits, and they chat with each other about ‘their’ students.

Caraway Courses for Carers of People Living with Dementia.

This course started in April 2023, and has run 3 times. It is a 7 session course of 2 hours each time. It is run in conjunction with an established Memory Café so that people living with

dementia can also attend and enjoy some company and activities with others or in the memory café in the next room. The course was run in Shirley in Summer 2023, Bitterne Park in Autumn 2023, and Lordswood in Winter 2024 and 10 to 12 carers attend each course. They are referred to the course by Admiral Nurses, Social Prescribers and Memory Café leads, and of course self referral. The aim is to offer information, emotional support and advice on planning to live well with dementia.

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We believe that if the family understand about dementia, how to cope with it, knowledge about the journey and

how to manage crises and transitions, then they will be less likely to feel burdened and stressed by their situation. They will act to ask for help to prevent crises and unnecessary hospital admissions, be well prepared with legal and financial aspects and they will involve their friends and family more.

Feedback : Carers said they appreciated:

As a result of understanding your emotions differently, what can you now do that you could not do before?

They said:

Professionals visiting sessions to give information and answer questions were:

Admiral Nurses, Older Persons Mental Health Doctor, Occupational Therapist,

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Unpaid Carers in Southampton, Social Care in Action, Day Centres, a solicitor and telecare services.

Ongoing Support for Carers:

By March 2024, we have 45 carers in this group of carers who have attended a carers course and some of our expert carers that we have supported for several years. For this group we are arranging an arts based session of support and networking three times a year and we are encouraging other peer led groups such as one in Shirley, supported by the Methodist Church, and a men’s group. They may of course still attend their local memory café.

Wellbeing Volunteers for Dementia

An initiative collaborating with NHS and Admiral Nurses to create a telephone support and wellbeing call for carers of those living with dementia. Start-up date 1.3.21.

Trained volunteers telephone carers on a regular basis, to listen, care for and support carers. The aim is to offer the service to carers living with someone who has dementia and to encourage attendance at a memory café. We have 6 trained volunteers calling 11 carers, growing but also being evaluated for improvements needed.

Caraway has a Volunteer Coordinator, called Lo, who supports all our volunteers. Feedback from one volunteer:

“Thank you for the support and encouragement you have given me over these past months of working as a Wellbeing Volunteer for Dementia. It has been great coming on board, with lots to learn”

Caraway Dementia Services have been supported in 2023-4 by the McCarthy Stone Foundation; Southampton City Council; No Wrong Door ( Hampshire NHS ICB)

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Combating Loneliness: Caraway aims to combat loneliness

Holiday @ Home - July 2023

We provided resources for our Memory Cafes and other groups across the city and with the support of Highfield Church also hosted a day event ourselves to give our older community a ‘day trip to New Zealand’! They were given a boarding pass as they arrived and a full programme of events for the day to choose from, including craft activities, quiz, hand massage and after lunch the now famous armchair Haka which was loved by all. The local school also visited to entertain us with songs. We had over 60 guests, including some from local Care Homes and everyone was given a gift bag of goodies as they left.

Feedback

Just wanted to say a huge Thank You to you and your colleagues who put together yesterday’s event. Our Residents that came along had a fantastic time, it was lovely hearing all about their day when they got home. Many Thanks.

A truly wonderful day and such hard work people must have done to make it happen.

Thanks for a great day in NZ. Good fun, and a wonderful way to meet people.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day in New Zealand! It was really well planned, food very nice - so HUGE thanks to all involved in any part of the day - we thought it was great and huge fun learning the Haka! The young lady teaching us was really good and had us all laughing about it! The whole day is something to remember . with much pleasure

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Creating Community: Vintage Adventure @ Home

Every month we send out an A5 booklet filled with worship, reflections, poems and actitivites all based around a theme for that month. We currently reach over 240 people, mostly within Southampton, but we do send to friends across the country as well.

It remains a much valued spiritual and social booklet researched, written, produced and delivered by a wonderful, faithful group of volunteers. Our Anna Chaplains use the monthly booklets focussing on those who are housebound or lonely.

All resources are available for free download on our website.

Year Month Edition Title Number sent
2023 April I Am the Resurrection & The Life 207
May The Kings Coronation 198
June I Am the Bread of Life 199
July I Am The Way,The Truth,The Life 199
August I Am The True Vine 196
September Harvest 195
October Older People 198
November Remembrance 216
December Christmas 220
2024 January Joyous January 232
February Creation Day1 - Let There Be Light 237
March Spring /Easter 247

We send out over 240 booklets every month. We were pleased to receive continued support from Highfield Church and The Listeners Trust for this project.

Feedback

Thanks for a good issue of the VA at Home; much care and hard work involved; a good team. Thanks to you all. D

I bumped into a lady who lives in West End yesterday who receives the VA pack and she spoke so highly of it and really enjoys receiving it - especially the puzzles!

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I got home feeling fed up and down and when I opened my VA@Home pack the Isaiah 41:10 prayer card fell out - it was just wanted I needed to read at that time, thank you. A

I went a month ago and offered her a prayer card and VA which you had given me. I wasn't sure how well received it would be. A couple of days later she phoned me to say that after I had left she started reading the VA and it made her realise that it was the first time in a very long time that she felt she was taking part in worship. I was so encouraged. L

I have just received your VA@Home after a friend recommended it for me. After reading just a couple of pages I know I will enjoy it. It is really lovely, thank you. M

We would like you to pass on to everyone at Caraway how we all really appreciate and look forward to our monthly readings and prayers sent from Caraway to us. Christmas was really covered by all readings; the New Year one was so special to have a prayer with our initial first name. Please pass on our thanks to you all. As you say ‘spiritually resourcing the older person’. The Lord’s Holy Spirit is definitely being passed through to us all. V & D

I sent a copy of Joyous January to a bright 90 year old in Gloucestershire who has written to say she loved it and would be contacting Caraway for more as she could immediately think of two parishioners who would benefit from it!

I just wanted to say how much I am enjoying the February edition of Vintage Adventure at Home. It is packed full of interesting things. ...I was very struck by your account of your son’s wonderful recovery from cancer. What a witness to the power of prayer......I showed Vintage Adventure to three elderly ladies I visit regularly and they were very keen to be on Caraway's mailing list so I have sent their addresses. This is such a great resource for housebound people and I am very grateful to you for thinking of me ......

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Home Prayer Card

Every month we post over 170 copies of our Home Prayer Card to people across the city. Each month has a different theme and different people contribute. Our Anna Chaplains not only deliver them to those they care for but also use them for praying with those who are now unable to get to church.

Feedback :

I visited this week and took this month's resources. The lady was delighted and wants to receive the VA and prayer card each month.

Whilst visiting the bereavement group I was handing out the Christmas Prayer cards when one of the recipients mentioned she had been reading her last copy yesterday evening, when she read something that really helped her. She didn't say what it was - but she was blessed!

A Taste of Caraway – our Fundraiser

We held our fundraising event on 7[th] October 2023. We invited people to come along for a fun afternoon, experiencing a little of the work Caraway does through the year as well as enjoy some musical entertainment and an afternoon tea.

We closed the event with an Auction of Promises and were delighted to raise over £2000.00 from the afternoon.

Supporting Care Homes: Virtual Christian Services

We aim to offer a bi-monthly Communal Christian worship service to our Care Homes via Zoom. 6 Care homes regularly join us along with Care Hubs as well. We provide a gift bag for each session with the orders of service, some activity sheets and an edible treat for them. We are very blessed by our wonderful team of volunteers who assist with the service, giving a talk, leading the

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prayers, and dealing with the technology, and others who deliver the gift bags and orders of service to the Care Homes participating, they all help to make this possible.

We continue to provide Spiritual Care boxes for our Anna Chaplains to gift to the Care Homes they support. They contain helpful guides for the Carers, prayer cards they can use with their residents for specific needs, a Bible, a wooden holding cross and copies of our latest VA@Home booklet and Prayer Cards.

Our Volunteers: People helping people helping people

It is true that apart from their badges, it is difficult to know at a Caraway event, who are the volunteers and who the guests. The majority of our volunteers are over 70 years old, and have a real heart for helping people. They are bright, resourceful, and work really well in their teams. They say they get a lot out of helping others less fortunate that themselves. Or maybe the volunteer helps because he or she knows what it is like to travel the dementia or old age journey, and they just want to help others through it. Such compassion and heart.

We have about 70 volunteers participating in:

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All volunteers are registered with Caraway and receive training, are DBS'd and given ongoing support.

Our Website and Publications: www.caraway.uk.com

The Caraway website provides a window into our work and stores details of events, publications and is a safe way for anyone in Southampton to access the services of an Anna Chaplain or Caraway Volunteer.

Google suite for charities is providing a safe, efficient

information and communication hub for our chaplains, volunteers and community contacts with other agencies and organisations. It gives a link to our regular newsletters, prayer letters and training documents.

The Important Role of Caraway

Our unique niche is providing spiritual care for the older person. It is about connecting them with community, hearing their sorrows and joys, being with them in times of loss, and providing meaning to life in the community. We do this with the abundance of God’s provision, with love for the older person, and with an understanding of what it is to age and stay valued and engaged with our local community and or faith groups.

Our work with people living with Dementia has really grown in the last 12 months and we hold a vital connecting place for people living with dementia and their carers and health and social professionals.

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The charity works with people of any faith or none and supports churches in Southampton providing services for older people.

What is Spiritual Care?

Spiritual care supports a person to explore their awareness of their meaning, purpose and connectiveness in life. It is listening and being present for that person, who may have a faith or not, and responding to their needs in the areas of grief and loss, crisis, ethical and moral issues and when in distress.

Our Aspirations for 2024-25

So, what do we expect over the coming year?

We have been thrilled at the creativity that we’re already seeing in our teams to engage, sustain, support and resource the older community.

  1. Develop the Caraway Chaplaincy service for older people

We aim to develop the Anna Chaplaincy work in Southampton, aiming to get a chaplain for Older People in every community of the city. We will continue resourcing, supporting and encouraging our existing Anna Chaplains, helping them recruit volunteers, and welcome new local chaplains from surrounding areas. We have a safe and clear referral route and respond promptly passing on the referral to a chaplain or trained volunteer. People can self-refer to this or be referred by their church, social prescriber or admiral nurse. We seek to fund and appoint a Chaplaincy Coordinator.

  1. A new Anna Chaplain for Dementia

Our new City Chaplain for Dementia, Rev Dave Hendra started in December 2023 and will be working for various goals including liaising with churches, training Chaplains volunteers and running the carers course and new men’s group.

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  1. Maintaining the Memory Café Service.

  2. Having expanded to 10 memory cafés a month, including sto ome of the more deprived areas, we will strive to maintain quality, train our volunteers and offer carers courses and one to ones when requested. This is collaboration with the NHS Admiral Nurses. We are working to evaluate the schemes and improve signposting opportunities.

  3. Supporting carers of and those who live with dementia We will evaluate, consolidate and publish the Caraway Carers Course in collaboration with Emotional Logic, developing a team of 4 trained facilitators. Following the course, carers can join the Ongoing Carer Support Scheme of 45 carers which provides an arts based supportive meeting once a term.

  4. The Loneliness Project

  5. Following research with chaplains and focus groups, in 2023-4 we developed resources about loneliness for our Chaplains and volunteers to use with older people who are lonely and isolated. The packs contain a positivity guide, a gratitude journal, a candle, cards suggesting things to do when they feel lonely. They are professionally produced and can be sold to others around the country.

  6. Refresh and Resource Day May 13th 2024

  7. A day of training and reflection for all those involved in the ministry of older people in the South of England and beyond. Focus will be on loneliness and isolation in older people. It will be thought provoking, inspiring, creative, prayerful, and fun.

  8. Raise funds to support these aspirations

We have received several grants for our projects with older people. We will continue this fundraising activity to maintain our activity level and grow the chaplaincy service for volunteer and paid roles. We have received support from:

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We are incredibly grateful for these grant giving organisations.

  1. Website and communications development

  2. At 5 years old, we need to update and develop our website, and channel more communications through it.

The Caraway Team: Thank you for supporting Caraway, from the team… Our Anna Chaplains (left to right):

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Our Trustees (left to right):

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Our Admin Team (left to right):

Our Finances

Reserve’s policy:

It is the policy of Caraway to maintain unrestricted funds which are our free reserves, at a minimum level of 3 months unrestricted expenditure. At March 2024, there were reserves available to cover 6 months of expenditure.

Risk review:

The trustees have a risk register that sums up the main risks to the charity and we have put in place policies and systems to mitigate these risks. Volunteers are protected under the insurance of Ansvar.

We have a wide range of policies including safeguarding, equal opportunities, lone working, volunteer and data protection.

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CARAWAY Chariht 1177743 Annual accounts for Ihe •r 01104r2Q23 31ffjY2024 Section A Statement of financial activities (including summary income and expenditure account) lundj I￿ldy tundg Totsl luThh kn¢off• INol• 31 F01 FQ2 F03 F04 FOS 14,339 4.590 14.339 39.667 9,520 39,424 35,077 rof Exp•n(kn INol•$ 6) 18,929 sio S11 rot 512 17.182 38.785 55.967 37.663 Nel Incomg4gxpgnthlw•) bjlorn tax I th• t•portlry p•rlo(I S1) 1,748 3,708 11.281 N•1 lTh¢om•l¢•xp•nthlw•l aftw l•x b•fw• Inv•slm•nt 9alnslloss•sl $15 1.748 3.708 11.281 516 Nel Incomo4expendttY•) Extraofthnary Il•ms Tr•nslws b•l*w•n funds Oth•f r•cognls•d galn&llh)ss•s): 51T 519 N•1 mov•m•ni In fynds 1.748 3,708 11,281 fvnds.. 22.708 24,456 27.571 23,863 50.279 48,319 $3.998 50.279 Tor￿ tsnds cwrieé lonv•vd Caraway Trustees Annual Report 2023-2024 29

CHAIITY Col￿$s#)N IC AI4) WIiIS Ind•p•nd•nt •xarnin•r's r•porf on th• 4¢¢0unis 117n4J Ctr Trt•n )1W￿24 r) w•1•r 145 011￿ 2Ql1 kl •iJ I DISCI￿￿¥ Crty 'cryYtt Il lfre rtr#s )J ol ￿¢￿(¢￿ 1.4.. %? A￿riflAt￿l(l ()1 I tknylly Caraway Trustees Annual Report 2023-2024 30

x!1 Ill I illl 1115 I;IiJ Caraway Trustees Annual Report 2023-2024 31

Charity Number 1177743

www.caraway.uk.com 07535 164014

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