Visit the training page for more information about training and to download the March Training programme.

The party went with a swing with tasty food, lots of champagne and great tunes from The Red Stripe Band, featuring Neil from West End Time Bank, who really got the party going and gave everyone the chance to dance to some old school classics.

Members from Westminster Carers Time Bank joined in with the fun and danced the night away. If you’d like to find out more about the Westminster Carers Time Bank, the only  time bank specially dedicated to supporting carers,  contact us and speak to Sushi. Alternatively, if you’d like to find a Time Bank in your area, you can do so on the TimeBanking UK website

If you didn’t make it to the December Festive Event you missed out on the mince pies, so try to make it to meet other timebank members and catch up with the latest skills offers and exchanges in the time bank.

Read this personal account written by a parent of three disabled children sharing her experience and just how important respite and support is to enable carers to lead ordinary lives.

The time bank held its first members event on 20th December at the Regent Hall on Oxford Street.  Members listened to the West End Time Bank co-ordinator tell them how they could spend their time credits with a variety of services that have partnered with the West End Time Bank, like the Soho Theatre, Marshall Street baths and the Word Cafe. Members were also encouraged to request exchanges from the  amazing range of skills other members are offering in order to help and support each other.

Watch this space for announcement of the next event to be held in late January. Seasons Greetings and Happy holidays to all Westminster Carers.

Time banks allow people in local communities to exchange their time and skills to help each other without any money changing hands. Timebanking is a growing community idea in the UK but this is London’s first time bank for carers. A time bank is one way for carers to get more of the help and support they need and we hope that carers across Westminster will sign up to become members of the time bank. The carers’ time bank will be inviting businesses in the community to join the time bank so that carers can exchange their time credits to access goods and services in local businesses and facilities.

The Lord Mayor, Councillor Susie Burbridge said ‘The motto of Timebanking is – It’s about Time – which I think says what many people feel about addressing the need to return to the basic values of supporting each other and strengthening our communities.’ The mayor supports the Young Carers service and expressed her support for the time bank and hoped it would benefit carers in Westminster. Alison Katerji, director of Westminster Carers service, said ‘Membership of the Westminster Carers Time Bank is open to anyone who is a carer in Westminster.  We hope that carers will sign up so they can share their knowledge and skills, strengthen their social networks and get more of the help and support they deserve’

Contact: Chibwe Henry – Westminster Carers Time Bank co-ordinator for more information or go to the Timebank section of the website

Call us on 020 7434 0670
Fax: 020 7734 9168
Email us at timebank@westcarers.co.uk

This summer, our Young Carers Service and Create, a charity that aims to give people of all ages access to the benefits of creative arts, organised photography workshops for young carers in Westminster. Resolution Property, who support the work of the Young Carers Service and Crossroads Care Central & North London Young Carers’ project, sponsored an art workshop, a photography project and the competition so that the work produced could be displayed at a fundraising dinner in support of the two charities. The event included an auction of work donated by a number of artists, a raffle and a chance to bid for a lunch and tour of Sotheby’s.

Nine of the twelve finalists for the competition were young carers supported by our Young Carers Service. Congratulations go to our own Josh, aged 10 and Eumana aged 11, for winning the photography prize and second prize in the painting section and to Camden young carer Sarah, aged 12 for winning the first prize for painting.

We would like to extend an enormous thank you to Resolution Property for their support  and to Helen Rogers in particular  for organising a fantastic event, to the judges and all those who supported the evening and of course congratulations to all the talented young carers who took part in the workshops as well as to the winners of the competition.

At the end of the evening both charities were awarded cheques of £10,000. Over the next 12 months, Resolution Property will be carrying out fundraising initiatives to raise money for Westminster Young Carers Service and Crossroads Care Central & North London young carers’ project, and hope to raise at least £80,000 in order to enable the charities to continue their essential work with young carers in London

Inspired? Find out how you can donate to support our work with young carers

For more information about the work of Create visit their website www.createarts.org.uk

In order to respond to the challenge of delivering services with shrinking resources, carers were asked for their opinions about ideas for developing new services and how it might be possible to provide the same quality of service with less money. Service users rose to the challenge and the day was a great success. The morning workshop session saw some lively debate and exchange of ideas and there was plenty of feedback from the questions under discussion.

After lunch there was a good response to the idea of setting up a Westminster Carers Time Bank for carers to support each other. A consultation survey and questionnaire was also sent to all users of the service who were not able to attend and a small carers representative group was formed to analyse all the resulting feedback and to help carry ideas from this forum forward