Good Neighbours charity of 21 years having to close.

Shropshire Star

A  sShrewsbury charity that has been running for 21 years is having to close.  North Shrewsbury  Friendly Neighbours Charity.   It replicated good neighbours of old in providing a support network for people, driving them to hospital appointments, helping fill in forms, documents for claims etc and being there when needed. It having to close as its funding streams have gone. They had a goodbye party.

Transcript

00:00 Hi you guys, a bit of a sad day really. The North Shrewsbury Friends... Friendly Neighbours.

00:08 Friendly Neighbours. It's been your baby hasn't it, your project for many years.

00:12 Just fill us in on what it is for those not in the know. Okay, so it was a pilot

00:18 project that started 21 years ago through the Home Office to support the

00:23 redundancies coming out of Perkins factory in Whitchurch Road and since

00:29 then, three years later in 2002, we carried on on our own as an independent

00:35 charity which is a registered charity and we help with lots of things that

00:39 neighbours used to do years ago like shopping, transport, benefits, blue badge

00:45 applications, all that sort of thing. You said it's basically a huge support

00:50 network isn't it, looking after people. Like you say, we haven't all got those

00:54 neighbours we can just tap the door in the street and say "Hey John, how do you

00:57 feel this in?" and so on. So you were, like you say, after three years of

01:02 funding, you were sorting the funding yourself, you were funded by the

01:06 Council but that money's dwindled and dwindled until now it's

01:10 completely gone hasn't it now. Yeah and then also we had a charity shop in

01:14 Riverside and then we had to move out of there because of the revamp three years

01:18 ago which made a big difference to our funds. Yeah, that's kind of some of the

01:24 side effects I guess that people don't think of. And we were also having a chat

01:28 off camera. It's not easy to get people to volunteer and commit. You've

01:32 done your bit haven't you, 21 years. But it's not easy to get people to sign up

01:38 these days is it, as a full-on commitment. And you were saying

01:42 that's not been helped by the retirement age. That's right, because people are

01:46 having to retire later. Years ago we used to get lots of younger people through

01:52 the door in their early 60s and now that's had a big impact. And the

01:57 other problem is also since Covid it's been a bit harder as well. Yeah, so you

02:02 were up to looking after supporting 500 people at one point, still 300 people.

02:06 Yeah, roughly. And we've got two people here that have enjoyed your services.

02:13 What's your names guys? My name's Catherine Bowen. My name's Reginald Bowen.

02:19 Hello Reginald. And guys, how have you found the service then? How has it

02:23 been beneficial to yourselves? Oh it's been wonderful, absolutely wonderful.

02:29 Julie Cumberland. It's wonderful, I can't say no more. And I mean he was so ill in hospital and they were taking me up and fetching me back.

02:43 Oh, helping with the logistics of getting to hospital. Yeah, I mean I don't know

02:48 like I could drive but not then because I was under stress. Yeah. You know and it

02:54 was wonderful. I could turn to, you know, and Julie she was lovely.

03:01 Yeah, you can see it. She got everything, you know, the help we really wanted. Yeah.

03:09 And Reginald, so that was a massive, while you were ill, you know, worrying

03:15 about yourself and also your wife but they took a little bit of... I was worried about my wife driving and everything.

03:19 See, that's what I was worried about. Yeah. You know, getting her and back. Yeah. And then we had this lot of help for it.

03:26 So when you found out that's it, it's coming to an end, that must have been a

03:30 big blow really. Yeah, it was a shock. Yeah. Oh, a big shock. Yeah. And Julie, it's, I mean, when you hear

03:38 stories, you know, because you know you're helping people when you kind of hear the

03:43 stories come back. So quite a sad moment for yourself really. Yeah, it's really sad. We finished just before Easter next weekend.

03:50 Yeah. And then that'll be 21 and a half years. Yeah. And today's a little

03:56 thank you to everyone involved isn't it really? A little gathering and a bit of grub.

04:00 All the volunteers, there's about 30 volunteers here today. Yeah. So just to say thank you to everybody and, you know, to see everybody again before it finishes.

04:09 Yeah. Well, thank you, Julie, on behalf of residents of North Shrewsbury. Thank you.

Category

Transcript

Recommended