Suffolk Family Carers Presentation July 2012

My name is Marc Hall and I am a Community Development Worker for a charity called Suffolk Family Carers. We provide support and guidance to those aged 9 and above who provide unpaid care to family or friends.

Our core projects include The Community Information and Guidance Service which I work for, the Young Adult Carers project for those aged 16-24 and our Young Carers project who support family carers aged 9-15 years old.

My role within the organisation is to work with communities, helping them set up and sustain support networks and to assistance them with identifying hidden family carers. This includes talking to groups such as The Chronic Pain Support Group to raise family carer awareness, through to facilitating groups in towns such as Bury St Edmunds, Newmarket, Sudbury and Haverhill.

The groups meet once a month and are open to any family carer aged 18+ to provide them with an opportunity to have a break from their caring role. We also organise an activity for carers to join in with or ask speakers from other organisation to come along and tell the group about the services they provide.

We have many other services available to family carers in Suffolk and I have only touched on a few of them however, if you would like to know more please log on to our website – www.suffolkfamilycarers.org or contact our Information Line on 0844 225 3099.