Community engagement resources - My Home Life England

Community Engagement

Engagement between care homes and the local community is so important. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of friendship, kindness and community spirit and we heard many heart-warming stories of thoughtful surprises and donations. We’ve also heard from other community members that they want to help, but don’t always know how. We’ve created some resources for care homes to help you reach out to your local community:

1. Posters

Put a poster in your care home window, or in the window of your local shop, and let the community know how best to support you:

Poster: help spread kindness!

Poster: help spread kindness! (this version can be personalised to include specific requests)

2. Volunteering ideas sheet

If anyone would like to know other ways in which they can support you, here’s a ready-made ideas for volunteers sheet you can give them, full of practical ways they can offer support, including whilst still maintaining social distancing if necessary.

3. Community Engagement Companion

This document full of ideas and tips was co-created with the care home managers and activity coordinators of the 28 homes taking part in the North West London Care Home Friends and Neighbours project funded by the Mercers’ Company. It contains contact details and examples that are specific to North West London, but many ideas can be transferable to your area. Here are some other resources (tried and tested by care homes) to help build on your community connections:

Welcome pack

These resources are designed to help you make friendly approaches to individuals or organisations that you’d like to connect with. Click on the links and download your own copy of each file.

Digital Pack – Care Home FaNs Logo

Digital Pack – A4 Welcome Letter

Digital Pack – A5 Leaflet

Digital Pack – A6 Thankyou Postcard & Case Study

Digital Pack – Certificate

The 3 steps

Digital Pack – All 3 steps and prompt cards

Step 1: Thank your current connections

Step 2: Pin down your possibilities | Step 2: Prompt Card for Question 1 | Step 2: Prompt Card for Question 2

Step 3: Get your message out – do you want to connect with us?

Quick guides

Our quick guides are stuffed with hints, tips and answers. Useful ideas to help you succeed:

Volunteers – ‘bringing light to life’

Engaging with the community

My Home Life England Community Engagement Bulletins

Download for FREE the My Home Life England Community Engagement Bulletins. Each Bulletin highlights a different area of community engagement and how we might build our practice, to know our neighbours outside the care home better.

Bulletin 21: Quality of Life; the little things that matter

Bulletin 22: Activity and Wellbeing; Exploring the challenging role of the Activity Coordinator

Bulletin 23: Quality of Life; Reaching out for support

Bulletin 15: Community Engagement

Download