Crossroads Care NI
Putting Carers in the Spotlight
Crossroads Care NI is dedicated to supporting, serving and strengthening carers and those with care needs.
The Crossroads Care model started 1974 when the production company behind the TV series Crossroads gifted £10,000 to an individual for sharing their personal experience as a carer. That carer used these funds to establish over 200 carer friendship & support groups throughout the UK.
Tailored Care Solutions
Whilst Crossroads Care NI gained independence in 1996, providing person-centred comprehensive care solutions remains at the core of what they do and the organisation currently supports over 800 families throughout NI annually.
As a domiciliary care provider, Crossroads Care offers a range of services tailored to meet the unique needs of each carer and care recipient. These include personal care, assistance with daily activities, companionship, and medical support. The goal is to enable individuals to maintain their independence and quality of life while ensuring the carers’ well-being.
Empowering Carers
Crossroads Care has an unrivalled understanding of the challenges caregivers face daily. Caring for a loved one can be both emotionally and physically demanding, often leading to exhaustion and burnout. Recognising this, Crossroads Care offers a vital lifeline – respite care. This service provides carers with much-needed breaks while trained professionals tend to their loved ones’ needs, ensuring a temporary reprieve that rejuvenates both body and spirit.
Themed crafts, interactive play and sensory experiences in the activity room and garden offer children and young people with complex needs a safe and nurturing environment in which to explore, learn and build lasting friendships. Knowing that their children are in a safe and well cared for allows parents and carers to take a well-deserved moment for themselves.
Over 3,000 young carers have been supported .
Young Carers
In 1994, Crossroads was the first local charity in Northern Ireland to recognise the vital role children and young people play in caring for an ill/disabled family member on a daily basis. Crossroads Young Carers Project’s aim is to provide support for children who ‘care’ for another member of their family who may be ill, disabled, have mental health problems or an addiction. Over 3,000 young carers have been supported since Crossroads commenced work with this vulnerable group.
Future Planning
Mindful that existing health conditions or disabilities can curtail independence and limit social engagement, resulting in loneliness, Crossroads Care has designed a very successful befriending scheme. In Your Prime mobilises the input of volunteers to stimulate social interaction and friendship in order to reduce social isolation among older people.
In 2019 the charity established Crossroads Care Recruitment as a social enterprise to provide quality, highly trained, dependable staff to healthcare customers throughout NI. All profits from this business are used to support the services and activities undertaken by the charity.
Other partners who are making a difference
Identifying the right network of dedicated and ambitious partners has enabled us to deliver on our charitable purposes and activities. Here are just some of the life-changing projects that our grant partners have been involved in.
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The Right Key
What started in 2013, as a singing for health project, has now evolved into the creation of a community of individuals of all ages and backgrounds sharing and supporting each other.
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TEN Foundations
The TEN Foundations Livelihood Programme provides local mothers with the necessary skills and resources in order that they may provide for their own families and become self-sufficient.
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GLOW
GLOW’s unique programmes equip young women and girls with the tools and techniques to build their confidence, self-esteem, resilience and life skills.