The Farnham Group Reunion #HereToCare

This week Surrey Choices is celebrating the impact of reunions of the people we support, as part of the #HereToCare campaign run by the National Care Forum. With people keeping safe at home since March 2020 due to Coronavirus, Surrey Choices staff following government protocols have began arranging reunions for the people they support to meet and re-connect with each other.

People supported by The Farnham Group reunited at Gostrey Meadows in Farnham recently, and in the run up to this event everybody was in high spirits at the thought of meeting their friends, but also at the same time a little nervous as it was the first time that they had ventured outside of their own homes since the lockdown began. Clare was particularly excited at the thought of meeting with her friends and had been counting down the days each day with help from her parents.

When meeting at the bandstand in Gostrey meadows, Clare, Yvonne and Elizabeth were overjoyed to see each other for the first time in months. They soon began discussions about how they had been coping at home and the things that they were able to learn during lockdown. Yvonne was eager to show both Elizabeth and Clare some of her new digital skills like playing music through a speaker on her phone. Elizabeth was delighted to have been featured in Surrey Choices monthly newsletter recently, telling her friends all about her spotlight interview and how happy she was to see it published.

The conversations flowed as Elizabeth, Yvonne and Clare made bird feeders for their gardens out of dried fruit, apples and pears. It was as though they had all been saving up their conversations for this one moment in time. The conversation soon turned to what they would be doing in the future and everyone agreed how much more they wanted to go out into their community, visiting new places and meeting new people. Everyone felt much more at ease in no time and they all decided to continue meeting independently to keep in contact with each other.