Working together to make a difference
Alana Brokenshire is a carer. She cares for both her mum who has arthritis, diabetes and severe mobility issues and her brother who has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). She has been a carer since she was 11 years old and her education has suffered due to the demands of her caring roles, placing her at a disadvantage to her contemporaries. With support from CSW Alana has been able to enjoy time out from her caring role with days out and short breaks. We have helped her get onto an apprenticeship with Learn Direct where she successfully passed her child care qualification at a local nursery and provided useful training, including CV writing and interview techniques. We also helped her get a place on a 12 week Princes Trust programme designed to uncover hidden talents and improve confidence, as well as gain a nationally-recognised qualification, and develop English and maths skills. Alana is now working part time at a local school.
Your business could help people like Alana fulfil her potential. From Charity of the Year partnerships to taking part in fundraising events or volunteering – there are lots of ways you could get involved and make a difference.
A Charity of the Year partnership with CSWis a fantastic way to motivate and unite your employees whilst helping us raise vital funds to support Wiltshire’s unpaid carers. We will work with you to develop a tailor-made fundraising programme to deliver your key objectives, developing a partnership that demonstrates your organisation’s Corporate Social Responsibility, adds value to your business and sets you apart from your competitors.
Walk a Mile in My Shoes is a fun annual fundraising event where fundraisers put on someone else’s shoes (the whackier the better) and do a one mile sponsored walk in aid of CSW As event sponsors your company can have its name emblazoned on the event T shirts, your company can put together a team to take part in the event or you can get together some volunteers to help us run the event – the team-building opportunities are endless!
Support a project that is close to your heart or in some way related to your business. There are many different projects running at CSW at any one time, including Pathways to Work and Young Adult Carers.
The Wiltshire Passport Scheme is another way that Wiltshire businesses can help us to help more carers. If you would like to provide discounts or offers to Wiltshire’s unpaid carers please get in touch.
Payroll giving enables employees to give to one or several different charities and they can change their donations at any time. Simpler still is the Pennies from Heaven scheme. Individuals sign up and their monthly salary is then rounded down to the nearest pound, with the pennies donated to charity – so the most anyone can ever give is 99p. Better still is that HMRC will add 25% at no cost to the donor or the charity.
Run, cycle, skydive. Get a team together and take on a challenge for CSW Whether it’s a 10k, a long distance bike ride or the ultimate challenge, a skydive we have lots of ideas of ways you can raise money for us.
Give As You Live is an easy way to generate funds for CSW. By signing up to this scheme your organisation can generate FREE donations to our charity through online purchases for stationery, office equipment and travel. Visit www.give.as/business for more information.
Advertise. Published in May and September our bi-annual newsletter is circulated to the 11,000 + carers on our database and throughout the community; in GP surgeries, libraries, partner organisations and local businesses. It is also made available at CSW fundraising and information events, and to all of our Working For Carers members. To cover the cost of our newsletter we welcome the advertising that is relevant to carers and their needs.
The benefits to your company
With 47,000 unpaid carers in Wiltshire and three in five people set to become a carer at some point in their lives, ours is a cause that most people can identify with and many will feel passionate about.
Supporting your local charity can raise your company’s profile, improve brand perception and help you to reach a desired target group. We have an audience of over 11,000 carers and work closely with many other Wiltshire organisations including Age UK and the Alzheimer’s Society.
By supporting Carer Support Wiltshire your business can make a real difference to people like Alana. Contact Helen on 01380 872111 or [email protected] to find out more.
Working For Carers 
Have you ever tried juggling work with a caring role? It isn’t easy. The majority of carers are aged between 45 and 64, many of them at the peak of their careers and extremely valuable to your organisation, can you afford to lose them?
Our Working For Carers programme is designed to help your business retain the people who matter most – your team.
Becoming a Working For Carers employer helps you to enable carers to stay in work. Visit the Working For Carers website to find out more.
