St Clare Hospice has received a £5,000 grant from Qualis’ Community Benefit Fund. The grant will enable St Clare to develop its Compassionate Communities Programme which provides local, community-based services to better support people living with life-limiting illnesses.
St Clare is the catchment hospice for residents of Epping Forest District, providing free, compassionate care and support to more than 2,000 adults with life-limiting illnesses, their families and carers each year.
As a charity, St Clare relies heavily on funding from external partners to deliver its services, with just 30% of its costs met through NHS funding. It also has a dedicated team of around 500 volunteers who donate their time and skills to the charity.
The grant will be used to support several initiatives within the Compassionate Communities Programme:
Compassionate Neighbours
Currently supporting approximately 130 active ‘matches’ and with the potential to support significantly more, this project trains and matches volunteers to provide 1:1 support to lonely or socially isolated people living with life-limiting illness and frailty in their own neighbourhoods.
Bereavement Cafes:
These weekly ‘pop up’ cafes in nine locations offer ‘light touch’ peer support to people struggling with bereavement, facilitated by trained volunteers. Nearly 500 people benefit from the cafes each year and everyone in the community is welcome.
St Clare Dementia Support:
Dementia support is provided by specially trained volunteers who follow the Namaste Care approach to supporting people with advanced dementia, helping to soothe agitation and enhance their wellbeing. St Clare has trained more than 160 carers to date, and more than 400 people with advanced dementia have already benefitted from the programme. St Clare now aims to expand this very successful project to train whole staff teams in individual care homes and help them establish sustainable Namaste Care programmes of their own.
Community Space
The Community Space is a converted storage building within the hospice grounds which is offered at no charge for use by local, non-profit groups helping ill and/or isolated people. At present the Community Space is hosting at least six groups each week.
Representatives from the Community Benefit Fund judging panel recently visited St Clare to find out more about the Compassionate Communities Programme.
Qualis Property Solutions Managing Director Ben Johnson commented:
“St Clare Hospice provides such a valuable service to the community, and it gives us great pleasure to be able to support them in building on the success of the Compassionate Communities Programme.
“This donation will directly and indirectly benefit hundreds of residents across the district, supporting those affected by life limiting illness and their families and carers too.”
Cllr Nigel Bedford, Deputy Leader and Housing Portfolio Holder added:
“We have all enjoyed visiting today and seeing the fantastic work that Fiona and the team do here at St Clare Hospice.
“It is a privilege to be able to provide this support, through Qualis’ Community Benefit Fund, and know that many more families across the district will be able to access their Communities Programme as a result.”
Fiona Venus, Compassionate Communities Programme Manager at St Clare Hospice said:
“Qualis’ generous support is making a real difference to how we are able to support local people, helping us to build stronger communities through vital services like Café Clare as well as our bereavement cafes, Compassionate Neighbours programme and community space activities.
“Thank you Qualis for coming to see us…we are so grateful for partnerships like this, which help us continue to make a positive impact.”
Find out more about our Community Benefit Fund and apply today.
Photo L-R
Julia Legood (Qualis), Cllr Nigel Bedford, Fiona Venus (St Clare Hospice), Wyn Marshall (Tenants and Leaseholders Panel), Ben Johnson (Qualis)
