All about Age Concern Hythe

The Hythe Handbook is supporting Age Concern Hythe as its chosen charity over the year and as well as helping promote fundraising appeals, an article relating to the issues and priorities linked to the organisation will feature in each edition. We visited the centre recently and presented them with a cheque for £100, monies raised from the recent reader survey.

Age Concern Hythe was originally formed in 1948 and over the past 60 years the services for older people in the town have developed in to what is now offered five days a week, 9 – 4pm at Sanford House Day Care Centre, Stade Street, Hythe.

Activities offered at the centre include bingo, arts and crafts, singing, film shows, relaxation and exercise classes, day trips and they provide a warm, inviting and friendly atmosphere for older people to socialise in. Transport can even be arranged to collect and return clients to their own homes. A wide range of valuable services such as hairdressing, chiropody, hearing clinics and bathing are provided at affordable prices. Free internet access is available and a nutritious and tasty lunch is also on offer each day.

Staff are employed to provide confidential advice and help on a plethora of issues and an ‘Information & Advice Officer’ has recently been employed who will be on hand at the Centre to assist clients on a range of matters; this role will be covered in more detail in a later edition of the Handbook.

The Centre receives a grant from KCC but this only covers approximately 35% of its outgoings. Donations, fundraising events and legacies are therefore essential to cover the remaining costs. There are 21 staff and 14 volunteers and these people give up a huge amount of their spare time to help run events and ensure the services provided for Hythe’s older generation are delivered professionally, smoothly and continually.

In 2008, the centre was used by 423 individuals that, although sounds like a large number, actually only represents approximately 5% of Hythe’s older population. ‘Older’ people are officially deemed as those over 60 and, of course, many people in this age range do not need any level of help. However, one of the aims of Age Concern Hythe is to raise awareness of its services and reach those people who do not know how their lives could be enhanced and enriched by making contact.

The necessity and value of the Centre and its staff was clearly defined in a conversation I had with three regular attendees, Daphne Ellam, Ruby Chapman and Joan Harvey who all agreed that it enabled them to socialise and enjoy lunch together. Such simple things we all take for granted but, if it weren’t for the staff and the Centre, so many residents of our town would be deprived of this.

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