Ask About Alf
Even as people grow older, and society changes, we want everyone to be able to Achieve Life's Fullness. That's why we provide services with a real impact, and why we encourage everyone in our local communities to look out for one another and to:
Providing Care & Support in Our Community
Each service we offer is designed to support the physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing of our clients, and to help them remain independent, and with choice and control in their lives. They are run by experienced and trained staff, all familiar with the challenges faced by older people and adults with learning disabilities, and who know how to ensure each individual gets the most out of the service.
Our Local Mission
To ensure all older people and adults with learning disabilities across Medway and Kent are supported to Achieve Life's Fullness.
Our Principles - Our principles are defined by our local mission, and inform our every interaction with our customers, ensuring that we make sure all older people and adults with learning disabilities;
Have choice and control over all aspects of their lives.
Have a voice in policy and in design and commissioning of services.
Are respected, valued, involved and have a sense of purpose.
Are recognised for the contribution they make.
Recieve the care they need, when they need it.
Our Ambitions
Our strategy for the future was updated by our Board of Trustees in 2021, and we are committed to working towards ensuring that all older people and adults with learning disabilities:
Has easy access to opportunities and activities that enable them to lead a healthy, active and fulfilling life, with the companionship and support they wish for.
Is able to and supported to express their views and be listened to on matters that affect them and on which they are about.
Knows about and has easy access to high quality, impartial and reliable information, advice and advocacy when they need it in the way they need it.
Has access to locally available high quality, and personalised health and care services that are affordable to them or free of charge.
Our History
We are proud to say that we have been offering quality care and support services to our community for nearly 50 years.
Age Concern has had a presence in the Medway Towns since the 1970s. In 2010 Age Concern Gillingham and Strood merged to become Medway Age Concern, and in 2012 made the transition to become a local partner of Age UK, becoming known as Age UK Medway. In 2018 we expanded our service range even further by adding the Faversham team to our Homecare group, and again in 2021 by adding the Carer's Relief Service to the Group, effectively extending the support services we provide to adults with learning disabilities in Kent. In 2023, the charity group further expanded, taking transfer of Age UK North West Kent, merging with Age UK Faversham and Sittingbourne, and of course taking over the operations of the Clarendon Royal Community! In order to reflect the services we provide and the areas we provide them to accurately, we changed our name to Age UK Kent Rivers.
During the last four decades the organisation has built a strong reputation locally for quality, providing a full range of care and support services for the growing older population of the Medway Towns. We are proud to have been providing care, companionship and support services across the Medway towns, Faversham and Kent, including one Day Centre and one specialist Dementia Centre, to our community for forty years. The range of services has continued to expand to meet the changing needs of the local older population and to meet the Government, Local Authority and Health agendas.
Our Funding
Age UK Kent Rivers liaises closely with a number of other agencies and organisations who work with and for older people. Funding for Age UK Kent Rivers’s activities is provided in a number of ways. We charge for a number of our services in a community-focussed way, ensuring affordability and providing support with finding the money needed to meet the costs. We also utilise small grants, general fundraising, legacies and charitable donations from the community as well as reinvesting the takings from our charity shop in Gillingham into our Welfare Fund.
Age UK
Our National Mission
We are proud to be a brand and local partner of Age UK, whose mission is for a world in which everyone can love later life. To visit Age UK Kent Rivers Group’s website, and discover the services they provide throughout the towns of Medway, Dartford, Gravesham, Swanley, Sittingbourne and Faversham.
