The Caring For The Caregiver Program.
1. The Caregiver’s Fair.
Working with local organizations and church groups, we invite all the members of the community to the Caregiver’s Fair. We’ve had three such events over the last 3 years. Last April, we had 82 attendees to our Caregiver’s Fair at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church in Syosset, NY. The excitement was tremendous, the evaluations were overwhelmingly positive, and many Caregivers left with a new awareness of their life choices, and a copy of the Caregiver’s Bill of Rights.
2. The Caring Circle.
Twice a month since then, local caregivers have met in Syosset Long Island for an evening to discuss their care-giving experiences. Caregivers discover that they can discuss and be understood about issues they could express at no other place. Admission to the group is restricted to caregivers only. And even the trained facilitator must have been or be a Caregiver. At the end of the meeting, members are encouraged to consider or take an action, and report back at the next meeting. Over time, the group members move slowly from being victims of their own generosity to taking care of their own well-being while they develop skill and efficiency as Caregivers.
Click here to see: Caring Circle Meetings schedule and locations.
Go to ‘Caring Stories’ to read actual caring situations contributed by members of our Caring Circle.
Update: Dec. 01, 2010
The Caring Circle is growing! First of all, we bought bigger tables. Now we’ve had to create two separate sittings, afternoon and evening.
To the end of this year, evening sessions on December 1 and 15 at 7:30pm, afternoon sessions on December 2 and 16 at 1:30pm. Starting in January, evening sessions will be scheduled the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays, Jan 5 & 19, afternoon sessions scheduled the 2nd and 4th Thursdays, 13 and 27, and thereafter.
Click here for Actual Progress of Caregivers Attending the Caregiver’s Fairs and Healing Circle.
How you can help or participate.
If you are part of a religious or social community, would you like to help us bring our program to your location? Our program, as set out above, takes about 3 months in the preparation. There is a significant cost to the advertising, promotion, and staff cost to create this event. However, we have some limited funding we can contribute. We have a clear timeline and activity calendar to produce the Caregiver’s Fair event; and we can provide training for the Caring Circle Facilitation group to manage the support group going forward. Please call or email us if you’d like to explore further.
