Welcome to Manchester Cares. As a small organisation tackling some big challenges, we’re always inspired to see new people joining our growing network and keen to and hang out with and help their older neighbours across Manchester. We’re very pleased to have you on board and look forward to getting to know you in the coming weeks and months.
Manchester Cares is a community network of younger and older neighbours hanging out and offering each other social connection and friendship.
We know that our wonderful volunteers have busy work and social lives and want to be more involved in their local community, but find it difficult to do so. For that reason we try to make our programmes as accessible as possible. Many of our activities occur during evenings and weekends, and we do not require you to commit to volunteering for weeks at a time unless you want to. We’ve also eliminated a lot of the paperwork, so we don’t require you to be DBS checked unless you want to support an individual through our Love Your Neighbour. This means you can get involved straight away!
In turn, we ask our volunteers to stay in contact with Manchester Cares staff by phone or email, so that when we are planning activities and interactions we can make them the very best they can be – and to ensure they are always improving the lives of our older neighbours. We also ask our volunteers to talk to us regularly so that we can build a genuine social network flexible to changing needs.
That means we can be agile to your needs and the needs of our older neighbours over time – but once you’ve committed to an activity, we’ll expect you to be there.
We've put together this handbook of need to knows. If you'd prefer a PDF version you can download and read through everything in our Younger Neighbour Handbook.
Our social clubs are free group activities that take place throughout the month. They offer older and younger neighbours the chance to share time, laughter and new experiences in locations across Manchester.
Our social clubs programme is deliberately varied: both in when the events take place (the majority are in the evenings, with a handful of social clubs on weekdays and at the weekends) and in the types of activities we organise. Our social club activities include clubs like:
You can see all of the social clubs we have planned in your monthly email or check out our blog.
Tips to get the most out of social clubs
This varies from club to club. Some of our social clubs are deliberately smaller to attract your less outgoing older neighbours, while others – like our annual birthday celebrations and desert island discs club – will have lots of people chatting, laughing and dancing away. But typically there are between 10-15 people for you to get to know at our social clubs.
Your main responsibility is to chat with your older neighbours! At every social club there is a Manchester Cares staff member who may ask you to help make tea or welcome people as they arrive, but we like to stress that the real value for all participants is in the interactions you’ll have, the conversations you’ll enjoy, and the benefit everyone gains from those connections.
The activities are there to attract people along, but the point of a quiz night, for example, is not to win – as with all our activities, it’s way of getting people chatting, letting loose and feeling part of a community.
Just yourself and your best conversation starters!
Once you’ve been to one of our volunteer inductions, each month (around the 20th) you'll receive an email from us with a link to all of our Social Clubs that month. You simply need to sign up to which you want to come along to, and we'll then follow up with the address and any further details.
Places for social clubs are allocated on a first come, first served basis, and some of the events fill up quickly, so do sign up as quick as you can.
It’s also worth noting that our emails often end up in junk – we’re working on it – so please do check your junk folder if you haven’t heard from us.
Otherwise check out our blog where we upload a preview of the clubs planned for that month and give Heather a call or email on 07741 563 686 and [email protected]
If a friend or relative wants to volunteer, they’ll need to attend a volunteer induction before joining you at a social club. They can sign up here.
If they’re over 65, please ask their permission to pass on their contact details, and we’ll give them a call, tell them more about Manchester Cares, and encourage them to sign up to some social clubs.
We take lots of pictures at our social clubs. We share the images on social media and occasionally use them in our leaflets to showcase the joy of interacting with neighbours of different ages.
If you don’t want your photo taken, please speak to the member of staff present at the beginning of the social club you’re attending,
If an older neighbour asks if you can walk home with them, that’s a lovely sign that they’ve been enjoying your company, but please don’t feel any pressure to do so. Feel free to politely decline or explain that you need to head to another engagement. If it’s not out of your way and you’re happy to walk home with them, let the Manchester Cares team member leading the social club know that you’re planning on doing this, and once you’ve ambled back with them, please don’t go inside their home – even if it means declining a good cuppa.
Fundraising is a great way to make a difference to your older neighbours when you are struggling to find the time to join our social clubs. From taking on a challenge, to setting up a monthly donation, to joining one of our events – there’s dozens of creative ways you can support your older neighbours, at times that will work with your schedule.
Head to the Fundraising section of this handbook for more information.
Whether you’re a yoga teacher, musician, photographer, jive expert or craft extraordinaire, we’d love to hear from you if you have skills you’d like to share at a social club. Our volunteers’ skills and generosity help us to keep our programme diverse. Get in touch with Heather ([email protected]) if you’d like to lead a session.
If you have any other questions about social clubs, we’d love to hear from you: get in touch.
Once you have been volunteering with Manchester Cares for a while through our Social Clubs programme you may like to participate in our Love Your Neighbour project as well. This is where we match individual volunteers to individual older neighbours who are often housebound or otherwise isolated, so that you can offer a little practical support around the house, or just a little companionship and company to someone who needs a friend.
Our older neighbours who we engage through the Love Your Neighbour programme may be a little more frail or vulnerable than those who join our Social Clubs. We therefore require a little more commitment from volunteers who would like to support someone in this way. In particular, we need a DBS check before we can leave you alone with one of your neighbours. Although it takes a little back- and-forth and a few documents we can normally confirm a DBS check within two weeks, and we can still make an introduction to someone who we may think is a good fit for you in the meantime. We’ll do this as a team so it’s a nice informal introduction.
In addition, we need Love Your Neighbour volunteers to make a commitment, if you are willing to, to see your new friend once a week. Once a month you'll need to let us know the dates and times of your visits to your older neighbour that month, know, and how they're getting on.
If you would like to be part of the Love Your Neighbour project, please email Vicky ([email protected]) or Izzy ([email protected]) who’ll let you know much more.
Fundraising for Manchester Cares is a great way to make a difference to your older neighbours. With all of our events – from runs, to bake sales, to gigs, to pub quizzes, to dinners – there is a fun and vibrant atmosphere. And together, we can tackle isolation and loneliness in the City of Manchester.
How can I get involved?
There are three main ways to help us to make our older neighbours feel valued, vibrant and visible in this rapidly changing city:
My company has a charitable arm. Can I get Manchester Cares involved?
Of course! We’d love to work with your business. If you have a charity of the year, please consider nominating Manchester Cares. Or maybe you have a Payroll Giving scheme, and can donate to Manchester Cares through this? Or maybe your company has a charitable foundation to which Manchester Cares could apply for funding.
With any of these, you could help tackle isolation and loneliness across the City of Manchester. And in return, there’d be plenty of ways to get involved in Manchester Cares. From team volunteering days, to supporting us with skills in-kind, your company would really see the difference they are making. Please email Laura on [email protected] for more information on how your business could partner with Manchester Cares.
(Content warning: this section includes material which references racism and discrimination, and examples of microaggressions)
Manchester Cares are committed to tackling racism, and to supporting the end of systemic racism in our communities and wider society. We understand that we cannot achieve our objectives – reducing loneliness, improving connection and resilience, and bridging divides in our community – without being an anti-racist organisation.
We strive to create a welcoming and enjoyable environment that is safe for everyone to be themselves. We want to make sure everyone feels valued on our programmes – no matter their race, sexuality, gender, age, ability, or religion/beliefs.
We do not, therefore, tolerate discrimination of any kind on our programmes. If any discriminatory behaviour occurs during a Manchester Cares activity, our staff team will address it swiftly and directly with those involved.
Calling in
Manchester Cares believes in “calling in” rather than calling out racism and other acts of discrimination. This means challenging acts of discrimination as they occur – so long as it is safe to do so – and giving members of our network the opportunity to recognise, apologise for and learn from shortfalls in their conduct.
We encourage all our neighbours to call in acts of discrimination, and even more so in support of one another. In any case, a staff member will address the incident as quickly as possible once they have been alerted to it.
What will happen if a neighbour says or does something racist or discriminatory?
If you witness, are made uncomfortable or are upset by any behaviour during a Manchester Cares activity, we encourage you to let a member of the Manchester Cares team know. A staff member will then swiftly address the incident by calling in the neighbour involved. We will update you on the outcome of this and discuss if you require any further support for the hurt you may have experienced.
If a neighbour says or does something racist or discriminatory, a member of staff from Manchester Cares will talk to them about what happened, either in person or over the
phone. The member of staff will share learning to explain why what happened is hurtful and offensive. This conversation will be followed by a letter or email confirming the outcome of the conversation and how the incident will be resolved, accompanied with further resources to aid their learning.
Any overtly discriminatory behaviour – for example, the intentional use of slurs and derogatory remarks – will automatically result in a temporary or permanent ban from all Manchester Cares programmes. The type of ban will depend on the neighbour’s response to being called in, and whether they apologise and acknowledge the hurt their behaviour has (or can) caused.
Any discriminatory act that is ‘subtle’ will result in a formal warning, dependent on an apology from the neighbour and a demonstrable commitment to learn and change as a result of the incident. Refusing to apologise or multiple formal warnings may result in a temporary or permanent ban from all Manchester Cares programmes.
What is a ‘subtle’ act of discrimination?
Subtle acts of discrimination – also called microaggressions – are remarks, questions or actions that communicate negative or stereotyped attitudes towards people who belong to marginalised groups based on their race, sexuality, gender, ability, age or religion/beliefs. They may be intentional or accidental, but either way, they can be very harmful to people who experience them, and perpetuate systemic discrimination of these groups.
Often people may not realise they are making a microaggressive comment or act. For example, during a conversation at a Social Club, a neighbour may ask another neighbour who is black, “where are you from?” It may be that the neighbour asking the question is interested in where the neighbour grew up or what their heritage is. But asking the question in this way suggests that the black neighbour cannot be from the UK because of their race, and so communicates the harmful – and incorrect – attitude that people who are not white do not belong in the UK.
It may be that the neighbour in this example didn’t mean to cause any offence. However, it is important to remember that the impact of what is said or done is more important than the intent. If you accidentally trod on someone’s foot, you’d apologise, even though you didn’t mean to. Microaggressions are no different.
Other examples of microaggressions include:
What Manchester Cares does, and the issues we’re trying to tackle, are complicated. As with every walk of life some of our work may contain risks. Although we have developed a robust risk assessment and policy framework to ensure that, where possible, all potentially harmful situations are avoided, mitigated or managed, we cannot avoid every eventuality – and you are ultimately individually responsible for your own behaviour, possessions, health and safety.
To guide you in case of a serious health emergency, please see the First Aid basics at the end of this Volunteer Handbook – and remember: if someone is in trouble please call the emergency services immediately.
Whilst we would like to provide all first aid training to all neighbours within the Manchester Cares’ network, the cost of the training and the number of neighbours involved in our programmes means that we are not able to do so.
All Manchester Cares' core staff are emergency first aid trained. If you are in a situation where there is a member of staff present and first aid is required, then please inform them immediately.
Should you find yourself in a situation requiring first aid and Manchester Cares’ staff are not present, call 999 and they will advise you accordingly.
If you are keen to learn more about emergency first aid then the British Red Cross provide a variety of training options. You can also download the British Red Cross First Aid App. The app provides simple first aid skills and step-by-step instructions to help you provide emergency first aid. Once downloaded, you do not need internet connection to be able to access the content.
So that you, as a volunteer, are aware of how you can help please consider the following in case of emergency.
The Three Cs
Caring for an unconscious person
Treating specific problems
That’s it! Hopefully you’ve had all of your questions answered and you’re ready to get stuck in making friends and tackling loneliness across our rapidly changing city. If you have any questions at all don’t hesitate to get in touch on 0161 207 0800 or email any of the team.
Thanks for joining our community network, you’re the best!
