The West Worcester Live at Home Scheme

We are part of a real community effort

on behalf of the elderly in West Worcester

contact: 01905 420805

This Scheme started in 1992, and was originally an initiative of all of the six Westside Churches. Whilst we are based here at the Methodist Church and are under the umbrella of a national organisation called Methodist Homes for the Aged, we aim to provide a service for all elderly people in the local community regardless of whether they are Anglican or Agnostic, Methodist or Muslim.

We started as a befriending scheme for elderly folk isolated at home, but we have grown to include friendship groups and escorted shopping trips, all of which help support the older members of our local community to stay in their own homes and not be forced to move into residential care homes in order to get the help they need. They can enjoy the one-to-one friendship of a volunteer visit every week, or come out on provided transport to one or all of our activities during the week, and meet - and make - lots of friends.

We also go on several outings a year – about one every six weeks or so.

New for February 2009 is the introduction of Extend Keep-Fit classes - chair based exercises for the over 60's and the less mobile.  These are taking place at the Green Centre. 

Volunteers often get just as much from the Scheme as the members do. They work really hard together as a team; cooking, driving, serving coffee, chatting, calling bingo – you name it they do it. Anna, Ruth & Gill(in the office) are always very proud of how much of their time they so willingly put into the Scheme.

We have around 150 members - some of whom are physically quite fit and some of whom are not. We have around 60 volunteers – some of whom give 15 minutes of their time each week to give lifts, and some of whom give 15 hours of their time each week to do an assortment of different things to keep the Scheme ticking on.

We try to be self-funding – each member will pay something towards every club they attend, every meal they eat, every outing they go on, and for transport. If we make a profit this always gets ploughed back to the benefit of the Scheme.

We are always keen for new members, and for new volunteers (especially drivers!).

We are part of a real community effort on behalf of the elderly in West Worcester.

For more information on any of our activities, please telephone 01905 420805.