Carers First is partnering with Carers Trust in the 'Making Carers Count' programme, supporting our Turkish and Kurdish carers based in Hackney and Haringey.
Carers Trust has launched the Making Carers Count programme to support the UK's most vulnerable unpaid carers. Carers Trust is working alongside 25 programme partners to use £3.45 million of funding to boost the support of over 13,500 unpaid carers, providing care for their loved ones.
Carers First has received £149,000 for a two and a half year project, offering support to our Kurdish and Turkish carers in Haringey and Hackney, this funding will enable Carers First to provide focused support and advice to individuals. Turkish and Kurdish communities have been identified as one of the clinically vulnerable, high risk groups in relation to Covid-19.
Alongside being clinically vulnerable for Covid-19, Turkish and Kurdish communities may face issues such as a language barriers when attempting to access information and guidance in relation to safety measures and medical advice. Carers First has always put a focus on the mental health and wellbeing of our carers, and we are aware of the heightened effect that the pandemic has had on individuals, especially those within ethnic minority communities.
The borough of Haringey has a high population of Turkish, Turkish Cypriot and Kurdish people, 38% of residents are from ethnic minority groups and 26% identify as white other (Healthwatch Haringey, 2020). Hackney is also widely diverse, with almost 64% of the population being people of colour (GLA, 2018).
Karen Johnson, Trusts and Foundations Fundraiser for Carers First, said: "Many of our ethnic minority carers often face challenges that not everyone is able to understand, and at Carers First we want to ensure all our carers receive support tailored to their own experiences. This funding is giving us the opportunity to increase the quality of our support delivered to Turkish and Kurdish communities and engage with their needs in a new and exciting way."
The funding from this partnership with Carers Trust will allow us to reach and support more carers from these diverse backgrounds. We know that obtaining the right support can be a challenge, but this project will help make this more accessible, especially for those vulnerable carers. We look forward to seeing the progress this programme facilitates and witnessing the positive impact this will have on so many of our carers.
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