Background Information

“A dementia-friendly community is a city, town or village where people with dementia are understood, respected, supported, and confident they can contribute to community life.”

In March 2012 Prime Minister David Cameron launched ‘The Dementia Challenge’ to tackle one of the most   important issues we face as the population ages. Last year the Prime Minister renewed this challenge by introducing the Prime Ministers challenge on dementia 2020

In Kent, we are putting the experiences of people who are living with dementia at the heart of this Challenge.

Although focusing on Dementia it is fair to say that a dementia friendly community is in effect friendly for all!

Over the last Three years Kent has made great strides in developing dementia friendly communities and now we are looking at further developing Kent’s communities using the good practice guidance (PAS1365) recently released by the British Standards Institute working with the Alzheimer’s society.

To be able to build strong cohesive dementia friendly communities we need to look in greater depth at the communities themselves and understand what assets are available to allow us to strengthen those community links.

One of the main assets which we believe will be pivotal in strengthening our communities are our local residents, which is why we are looking for local people who would be interested in volunteering in their local area to promote the various aspects of the Dementia Friendly Kent programme.

Volunteers would be encouraged to primarily work in their own local areas with occasional travel to assist at County wide events or attend training sessions.

Agreed mileage and/or travel expenses will be reimbursed (including car parking) on production of   receipts.

At this point we have two volunteer roles for which we are recruiting.

 

· Dementia Friendly Community Volunteer (Click for more information) 

 

· Dementia Friendly Community Digital Media Volunteer (Click for more information) 

 

 

If you are interested in applying for either of these volunteer roles you can either download an application form from the link on the left or contact Tracey Schneider on 03000 415483

Completed forms can be sent to

Tracey Schneider Dementia Friendly communities,  Social Care, Health and Wellbeing. Kent County Council, 3rd Floor, Invicta House, Maidstone ME14 1XX

or email the completed form to: Tracey.Schneider@Kent.gov.uk