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Make a referral

House Mill1

Thank you for your interest in East London Cares.

Please note that:

  • We are only able to take referrals for those aged over 65 and living in Hackney and Tower Hamlets;
  • Unfortunately, we are not able to take referrals for people living with a diagnosis of dementia, a psychotic disorder and/or any other unmanaged mental or physical health condition. We consider a physical or mental health condition to be managed when the person living with the condition has adequate support in place and/or is on medication which helps them cope with their condition. Medication is not a necessity for their condition to be deemed as managed.

To make a referral, or if you are over 65 and would like to self-refer, please complete our referral form. 

You can also download our referral guide for more information, or to pass on to your friends, colleagues and networks. If you want to stay in the loop about the clubs, events and activities we offer, sign up to our mailing list for monthly updates.

What can I refer an older neighbour for?

Our Social Clubs are free group activities that take place several times a week in person (face-to-face), over the phone and online, over Zoom. They offer a chance for older (over 65) and younger neighbours to share time, laughter and new experiences that help everyone to feel a part of our rapidly changing city, rather than left behind by it. Our Social Clubs take place on weekdays, evenings and weekends and include everything from a seated yoga session to banana bruising art and short film clubs. 

We send out free monthly #AllTogether Activity Packs (in the post or over email), which include an activity for every week of the month to do at home. Each suggestion is different and could range from writing a letter to an inanimate object, to deciding what you’d do if you were Prime Minister for the day, to cutting out words from a newspaper to turn into an abstract poem.

Love Your Neighbour is a friendship matching programme. It introduces younger and older neighbours living across Southwark and Lambeth, matching them together to spend time one-to-one together, either over the phone, in-person or a mix of both.

On the Love Your Neighbour programme, friends generally catch up together once a week, to enjoy company and conversation. We match people based on proximity and try our hardest to bring people together based on mutual interests to create genuine, long-lasting friendships.

Volunteers on Love Your Neighbour cannot help with practical tasks such as cooking, cleaning or attending doctor's appointments

Through our volunteer and outreach programme, we aim to support older neighbours to bridge some of the barriers to connection they may be facing, such as by facilitating one-to-one technology support. Where possible, we’re aiming to offer over the phone support to help older neighbours to access our online activities through Zoom, as well as build their skills in other areas, such as in how to navigate the internet or set up an email account. So if a neighbour you have access to the internet on a smartphone or laptop, but aren’t sure how to video call - we can help! Please note that unfortunately, we’re not able to provide any tech equipment, tech advice or support with getting connected to the internet -  as sadly we’re not tech experts.