About Us
Crawley Neighbourhood Network staff are employed by a consortium of 10 voluntary organisations which represent the diversity of the communities within Crawley. These 10 organisations are:
- Crawley CVS
- Age UK
- Swallows Over 50
- Sikh Community
- Diego Garcian Society
- 4Sight
- Gurjar Hindu Union
- WRVS
- Alzheimer’s Society
- Anchor Staying Put
Crawley Neighbourhood Network is initially an 18-month project with a staff team of 14, which seeks to engage with the community to discover all that is going on and to identify and meet gaps in services.
Crawley Neighbourhood Network aims to:
- Promote the health, wellbeing and independence of older people
- Reduce the need for ‘higher-level’ statutory services
- Prevent unplanned acute hospital admissions and delay admissions to residential care
- Enable people to live in their own homes with choice and control over how they live their lives.
To achieve these aims, Crawley Neighbourhood Network working together with local groups is developing:
- Befriending services
- Home from Hospital service
- Community Transport scheme
- Services to offer care for people suffering from Dementia
- Services to help older people with gardening and shopping
- Opportunities for older people to socialise and interact with each other
- Awareness among older people with regards to crime prevention.
What we’re about
- Networking – The Crawley Neighbourhood Network team has worked with over 50 groups in and around the Crawley area. So far, 20 volunteers have emerged from these groups – mostly from the Black and Minority Ethnic community. Gathering all local community groups, faith groups, charities, eleven sheltered housing schemes, three extra care schemes and doctors’ surgeries as well as Councils, Health and the Pension Service to share information and plan together.
- Sustainability – The Business Development Team is working on sustainability for over 100 groups and projects. Assisting funding and business links for all groups to provide long-term financial security and sustained service provision. We aim to utilise social enterprise developments to seek new and innovative ways of sustaining services.
- Engagement – Community Engagement Workers are active in every district of Crawley, partnering existing groups, doctor’s surgeries, schools, councillors and local community leaders. These teams are assisting marginalised and disadvantaged communities. Four workers are specifically helping Asian and African community groups and working with charities that help people with various impairments.
Crawley Neighbourhood Network team feels a sense of satisfaction seeing that projects we have worked on, such as the computer course, language class and CEMP friendship centre for older people are now in full swing.
If you want to become part of our Network working towards a better hope for older people in our town contact us on 01293 657160. See our contacts page for full details.