|
|
|
|
||
|
||
|
|
||
| SEARCH | SUBSCRIBE | ||
 |
A Community Work Centre Makes The Elderly Feel Less Redundant
This recent publication extols the virtues of those
who set up the Radford Care Group, a pioneering community group for the
elderly in Nottingham. Initially founded in 1968 to try to get the
housebound elderly out of their homes, the group has now been helping the
elderly to help themselves for over 30 years. In 1978, they started their
work centre which ran up until March 1997, and have more recently been
involved in new special day care units. The work centre provided work for a few hours and
good company for those taking part, and a small nominal wage per hour. It
was strictly non-profit-making, with the emphasis on the camaraderie of
the workers and on the feeling of 'doing something', rather than beign
isolated at home. The first job for the elderly 'workers' was to sort
bicycle parts from the nearby Raleigh factory, but in later years work
also included postal distribution, button-sewing, packing knitwear and
even inspecting string vests for holes. This work, alongside the other
work of the care group, gave elderly people a continuing and dignified
place in their local community. This was not a case of exploitation or of
a patronising attitude, just an escape route for elderly people from being
labelled as redundant to society. 'The history of the community is inextricable from
its elderly members, who bring with them memories and stories of the
locality' As Alan Simpson, the MP for the area, writes in the
introduction to the book, "The Radford Care Group always stood for
something larger and more defiant than just another community
activity." He points out that the history of the community is
inextricable from its elderly members, who bring with them memories and
stories of the locality. If this is borne in mind, the actions of such a
pioneering group can be seen to be as important to the community as those
people whom they help directly. It is perhaps more important today than
ever, in this age of globalisation, that people stand up for the local,
community priorities, and this includes the wisdom and experience of
elderly people. In this field, the Radford Care Group is an example of
what can be done when a few determined people on a shoestring budget set
out to help those who society have wrongly put a sell-by date on. Summarised from the book 'Radford Care Group' (published by Plowright Press, 2000) FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Action on Aging distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
|
